Antibiotic sensitivity of strains of the plague microbe isolated from foci in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia

Antibiotic sensitivity of 91 strains of the plague microbe isolated in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Daghestan, Georgia, Kabardino-Balkaria and the Stavropol region in 1977-1979 from the rodents and their ectoparasites was studied with the method of serial dilutions in the Hottinger agar. The following antibiotics were tested: streptomycin, erythromycin, tetracycline, methicillin, gentamicin, levomycetin, monomycin, lincomycin, ristomycin, rifampicin, kanamycin, doxycyclin and polymyxin M. All of the strains irrespective of their nature were resistant to methicillin, erythromycin, lincomycin, ristomycin and polymyxin M. The sensitivity levels of the strains to other antibiotics were different. The studies showed that with respect to the effect on the plague microbe streptomycin may be replaced by tetracycline, gentamicin, kanamycin or monomycin. The blood levels of these antibiotics in humans treated with their average therapeutic doses were several times higher than the minimum inhibitor concentration determined in the experiments.