Antibiotic resistance in Prevotella species isolated from patients with cystic fibrosis

Objectives: To compare the antimicrobial susceptibility of Prevotella spp. isolated from cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF patients and analyse the impact of antibiotic prescribing in the preceding year on resistance amongst CF isolates. Methods: The susceptibility of 80 CF Prevotella isolates to 12 antibiotics was compared with that of 50 Prevotella isolates from invasive infections in people who did not have CF and 27 Prevotella isolates from healthy controls. Results: All isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol, meropenem and piperacillin/tazobactam, with only four isolates resistant to metronidazole. However, resistance to amoxicillin, ceftazidime and tetracycline was apparent in all groups. Significant differences in clindamycin resistance (UK CF, 56%; UK invasive, 10%) and co-amoxiclav non-susceptibility (UK CF, 32%; UK invasive, 12%) were observed between UK CF and UK invasive isolates. The likelihood of non-susceptibility to clindamycin and co-amoxiclav in UK CF isolates was 5.5-fold and 2.5-fold higher relative to that in UK invasive isolates, respectively. Azithromycin MICs were also significantly higher for CF isolates (P<0.001), which was associated with current prescription of azithromycin. More than 50% of clinical isolates tested in this study were beta-lactamase positive. Conclusions: This study profiles antibiotic susceptibility in Prevotella spp. in CF and demonstrates that meropenem, piperacillin/tazobactam, chloramphenicol and metronidazole are likely to be the most effective antibiotics if treatment is indicated.