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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Ruminant Diseases and Immunology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #115399
Title: THE EFFECTS OF ANTIBIOTICS ON COLONIZATION OF THE INTESTINAL TRACT BY OXALOBACTER FORMIGENES

Author
item ALLISON, MILTON - ARS (RETIRED)
item Goff, Jesse
item HOLMES, ROSS - IOWA STATE UNIV., AMES

Submitted to: American Society for Microbiology Branch Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Oxalate is present in a wide variety of foods, and oxalate that is absorbed must be excreted because it is not metabolized by mammalian enzymes. Elevated urinary oxalate concentrations cause increased formation of calcium oxalate crystals and increased risk for kidney stone disease. Evidence continues to accumulate supporting the concept that degradation of oxalate by microbes in the gut reduces oxalate absorption and thus reduces urinary oxalate. Available evidence also suggests that the bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes is the organism that is mainly (perhaps totally) responsible for oxalate degradation in the intestines of humans and in a diversity of other animals. O. formigenes, a gram- negative anaerobe, is a specialist in that it uses oxalate, and only oxalate, as energy yielding substrate for growth. Its concentrations in the human colon may exceed 10**7/g. The incidence of colonization by O. formigenes in "normal" humans in the USA is more than 50 and less than 80%, while a much lower incidence of colonization by O. formigenes is found in some patient populations (e.g. patients that have had multiple episodes of kidney stone disease, those with cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, or Crohn's disease). Factors that regulate colonization are not yet well defined, but we believe antibiotic treatments may explain the loss of O. formigenes from individuals. We present here the results of a survey of the antibiotic resistance profiles of several representative strains of O. formigenes that have been isolated from humans and from other animals. We also report on the results of experiments to use antibiotics to eradicate these bacteria from pigs.