Lethal Gram-Negative Bacterial Superinfection in Guinea Pigs Given Bacitracin

Abstract

Farrar, W. Edmund, Jr. (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C.), Thomas H. Kent, and Van B. Elliott . Lethal gram-negative bacterial superinfection in guinea pigs given bacitracin. J. Bacteriol. 92: 496–501. 1966.—Oral administration of a single dose of bacitracin (either 2,000 or 10,000 units) was lethal to more than 80% of guinea pigs. Within the first 12 hr, there was a 2,000-fold fall in the number of gram-positive organisms in the cecum. An increase in the number of coliform bacteria in the cecum was demonstrable within 6 hr, and, by 48 hr, these organisms had increased from the normal level of less than 100 per gram to approximately 1 billion per gram. The changes in intestinal bacterial flora were associated with development of a severe cecitis, mild ileitis, and acute regional lymphadenitis. Bacteremia, primarily due to coliform bacteria, was demonstrated in approximately 40% of the animals killed between 72 and 96 hr after administration of bacitracin. Development of this disease syndrome was suppressed by the administration of neomycin and polymyxin B, nonabsorbable antibiotics effective against coliform bacteria. The lethal disease produced by bacitracin in the guinea pig is similar to that produced by penicillin.