IMPLANTATION OF A STRAIN OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI IN THE DIGESTIVE-TRACT OF HUMAN NEWBORNS - BARRIER EFFECT AGAINST ANTI-BIORESISTANT ESCHERICHIA-COLI

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. A133  (3) , 393-408
Abstract
Twenty-two healthy human newborns were inoculated within 2 h of birth with a strain of E. coli. This strain was isolated from the fecal flora of a healthy adult and was plasmid-free, nontoxigenic in vitro or in vivo and sensitive to all usual antibiotics. This strain became established at a high population level within 2 days in all newborns and remained at a very high level during the following days in almost all cases (86%). Strains of E. coli resistant to ampicillin or tetracycline were found in 6 of the 22 inoculated infants as well as in 7 of the 24 control infants. These resistant strains remained at a very high level in the control infants but disappeared, or decreased to a subdominant level, in the inoculated infants. Evidently, a totally innocuous strain of E. coli can exert, in holoxenic conditions, a barrier effect on antibiotic resistant E. coli strains. Inoculating such a strain at birth in order to prevent proliferation of potentially pathogenic bacteria was suggested.