Epidemiological Cut-off Values Generated for Disc Diffusion Data fronPhotobacterium damselae

摘要

In this study, epidemiological cut-off values were estimated for 44 Photobacterium damselae isolates, since clinical breakpoints have not been established for this pathogenic bacterium. The susceptibility of the isolates to 10 antibiotics was evaluated using internationally standardized disc diffusion protocols. Normalized resistance interpretation was used to generate statistically valid epidemiological cut-off values for the susceptibility data. There were not enough strains exhibiting full sensitivity to ampicillin and amoxicillin to allow analysis of these antibiotics. Because there were only a marginally sufficient number of strains exhibiting full sensitivity to oxytetracycline, the cut-off value generated provided only a provisional estimate.The valid wild-type cut-off values were <13, 13, 9, 22, 25, 27, and 28 mm for gentamicin, cephalexin, erythromycin, oxolinic acid, flumequine, florfenicol, and sulfamethoxazole/ trimethoprim, respectively. The application of these cut-off values shouldgreatly facilitate the rational selection of antibiotics for use in commercial fish farms.