Bacterial Species-Specific Activity of a Fluoroquinolone against Two Closely Related Pasteurellaceae with Similar MICs: Differential In Vitro Inoculum Effects and In Vivo Efficacies

We investigated the antimicrobial activity of a fluoroquinolone against two genetically close bacterial species belonging to the Pasteurellaceae family. Time-kill experiments were used to measure the in vitro activity of marbofloxacin against two strains of Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida with similar MICs. We observed that marbofloxacin was equally potent against 10⁵ CFU/mL inocula M. haemolytica and P. multocida. However, an inoculum effect was observed with P. multocida, meaning that marbofloxacin activity was decreased against a 10⁸ CFU/mL inoculum, whereas no inoculum effect was observed with M. haemolytica. Marbofloxacin activity was also tested in a lung infection model with immunocompromised mice intratracheally infected with 10⁹ CFU of each bacteria. At the same dose, the clinical and bacteriological outcomes were much better for mice infected with M. haemolytica than for those infected with P. multocida. Moreover, bacteriological eradication was obtained with a lower marbofloxacin dose for mice infected with M. haemolytica. Our results suggest that the differential in vivo marbofloxacin efficacy observed with the two bacterial species of similar MIC could be explained by a differential inoculum effect. Consequently, MICs determined on 10⁵ CFU inocula were not predictive of the differences in antibiotic efficacies against high bacterial inocula of closely related bacterial strains. These results could stimulate further investigations on bacterial species-specific antibiotic doses in a clinical setting.