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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 #106222
Title: THE EFFECTS OF ANTIBIOTICS ON COLONIZATION OF THE INTESTINAL TRACT BY OXALOBACTER FORMIGENES

Author
item ALLISON, MILTON - FORMER ARS EMPL, RETIRED
item GOFF, JESSE
item HOLMES, ROSS - WAKE FOREST UNIV., NC

Submitted to: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Evidence continues to accumulate which supports the concept that degradation of oxalate by microbes in the gut reduces oxalate absorption and thus reduces concentrations of serum and urinary oxalate. Available evidence also suggests that the anaerobic bacterium, Oxalobacter formigenes, is the organism that is mainly (perhaps totally) responsible for oxalate degradation in the intestines of humans and a diversity of other animals. While the picture is as yet far from complete, it is clear that: 1) Most children become colonized by O. formigenes at an early age and adults (so called "normals") in the US have a colonization incidence of more than 50% and less than 80%. 2) A much lower incidence of colonization by O. formigenes is found in some patient populations that have both: a) histories of frequent exposure to antibiotics, and b) increased incidence of oxalate-related disease. It seems reasonable to suggest that some kinds of treatments with oral antibiotics are responsible for loss of O. formigenes from the gut. Attempts to use antibiotics to remove oxalate-degrading bacteria from intestinal tracts of pigs were partially successful in that oxalate degraders could not be detected in fecal samples during a 12-day period that began after treatment of 3 pigs for 12 days with Chloramphenicol (4 g/day/80 kg pig). Our intent was to inoculate these pigs with O. formigenes, but before we were ready to do so (and despite our attempts to sanitize the pigs and their environment), oxalate-degrading bacteria were again detected in fecal samples.