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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 1999, p. 813-821, Vol. 43, No. 4
0066-4804/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of Doxycycline, Azithromycin, or Trovafloxacin for Treatment of Experimental Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Dogs

E. B. Breitschwerdt,1,* M. G. Papich,2 B. C. Hegarty,1 B. Gilger,1 S. I. Hancock,1 and M. G. Davidson1

Departments of Companion Animal and Special Species Medicine1 and Anatomy, Physiological Sciences, and Radiology,2 College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606

Received 31 August 1998/Returned for modification 9 November 1998/Accepted 30 January 1999

Dogs were experimentally inoculated with Rickettsia rickettsii (canine origin) in order to compare the efficacies of azithromycin and trovafloxacin to that of the current antibiotic standard, doxycycline, for the treatment of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Clinicopathologic parameters, isolation of rickettsiae in tissue culture, and PCR amplification of rickettsial DNA were used to evaluate the response to therapy or duration of illness (untreated infection control group) in the four groups. Concentrations of the three antibiotics in plasma and blood cells were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Doxycycline and trovafloxacin treatments resulted in more-rapid defervescence, whereas all three antibiotics caused rapid improvement in attitudinal scores, blood platelet numbers, and the albumin/total-protein ratio. Based upon detection of retinal vascular lesions by fluorescein angiography, trovafloxacin and doxycycline substantially decreased rickettsia-induced vascular injury to the eye, whereas the number of ocular lesions in the azithromycin group did not differ from that in the infection control group. As assessed by tissue culture isolation, doxycycline resulted in the earliest apparent clearance of viable circulating rickettsiae; however, rickettsial DNA could still be detected in the blood of some dogs from all four groups on day 21 postinfection, despite our inability to isolate viable rickettsiae at that point. As administered in this study, trovafloxacin was as efficacious as doxycycline but azithromycin proved less efficacious, possibly due to the short duration of administration.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 4700 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC 27606. Phone: (919) 513-6234. Fax: (919) 513-6336. E-mail: Ed_Breitschwerdt{at}ncsu.edu.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 1999, p. 813-821, Vol. 43, No. 4
0066-4804/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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