Poster Presentation International Pasteurellaceae Conference 2014

Towards a method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Haemophilus parasuis (#40)

Denise Dayao 1 , Conny Turni 1 , Justine Gibson 1 , Pat Blackall 1
  1. University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Haemophilus parasuis causes Glässser’s disease, a disease of significant economic impact in the pork industry.  Antimicrobial treatment is an important disease control option.  However, there are no accepted standardised methods for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of H. parasuis.  We are evaluating the capacity of a medium that has a known capacity to support good growth of H. parasuis to be used in disc diffusion (as an agar) and minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing (as a broth).  Both disc diffusion and MIC approaches have given excellent results when using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute(CLSI) recommended guidelines and Quality Control (QC) strains. Te only exception was that unacceptable results occurred with the S. aureus and co-trimoxazole combination.  When using the new medium and an MIC approach, the 97 H. parasuis isolates tested displayed only a low degree of resistance to tulathromycin (1%), ampicillin (2%), penicillin (3%), co-trimoxazole (6%), tetracycline (9%), tilmicosin (12%), and erythromycin (27%).  Overall, the MIC (and indeed the disc diffusion) method we have developed shows great promise. Formal validation of the methods would allow routine diagnostic laboratories to provide meaningful data to support sustainable prevention and control programs for this major disease.