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The effect of growth‐promoting antibiotics on the faecal enterococci of healthy young chickens
Author(s) -
Kaukas Anne,
Hinton M.,
Linton A. H.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1988.tb02429.x
Subject(s) - antibiotics , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Small groups of chickens were given feed containing either avoparcin, nitrovin, vir‐giniamycin or zinc bacitracin from the day of their purchase as day‐olds. Differences between the birds receiving growth promoters and the untreated controls were observed during the last third of the 23 d survey period. The enterococcal population of the ‘dosed’ birds contained a greater proportion of Enterococcus faecium than did that of the control birds while the converse was true for Ent. gallinarum . This apparent selection of Ent. faecium by the growth‐promoting antibiotics had an influence on the incidence of resistance to therapeutic antibiotics among the enterococcal population as a whole. This was because this species was generally more resistant than Ent. gallinarum to cephalothin, the MLS antibiotics (erythromycin, lincomycin and tylosin) and tetracycline.