Purpose: Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonotic disease and still constitutes a major public health problem. In the study we claimed to identify Brucella species from clinical samples of patients with active brucellosis from Van region of Eastern Anatolia and to determine in vitro antimicrobial susceptibilities of these strains to commonly used anti-Brucella agents and a possible new alternative tigecycline.
Materials and methods: A total of 56 Brucella isolates were enrolled the study and the identification of the isolates were based on conventional methods. In vitro activities of antimicrobials were evaluated by the E test method.
Results: All isolates were identified as B. melitensis. MIC(90) values of doxycycline, streptomycin, rifampin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and tigecycline were 0.064 mg/L, 1 mg/L, 2 mg/L, 0.125 mg/L and 0.094 mg/L, respectively. Tigecycline had low MIC(50) and MIC(90) values against all B. melitensis strains; the highest MIC observed was 0.25 μg/mL.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that tigecycline can be a therapeutic alternative option for the treatment of brucellosis.
Keywords: Brucella; E-test; antimicrobial susceptibility; tigecycline.