Periodontal disease is a common disease of dogs and cats often requiring antimicrobial treatment as an adjunct to mechanical
debridement. However, correct compliance with oral antimicrobial
therapy in companion animals is often difficult.
Cefovecin is a recently introduced veterinary
cephalosporin that has demonstrated prolonged concentrations in extracellular fluid, allowing for dosing intervals of up to 14 days. Subgingival samples were collected from the oral cavity of 29 dogs and eight cats exhibiting grade 2 or grade 3
periodontal disease. Samples were cultivated on Wilkin Chalgrens
agar and incubated in an anaerobic chamber for seven days. Selected anaerobic bacteria were isolated and identified to species level using
16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined for
cefovecin and six additional antimicrobials using the
agar dilution methodology recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. The 65 clinical isolates were identified as Porphyromonas gulae (n = 45), Porphyromonas crevioricanis (n = 12), Porphyromonas macacae (n = 1), Porphyromonas cangingivalis (n = 1) Fusobacterium nucleatum (n = 2), Fusobacterium russii (n = 1) and Solobacterium moorei (n = 3). This is the first report of S. moorei being isolated from companion animals with
periodontal disease. All isolates were highly susceptible to
cefovecin, with a MIC90 of ≤0.125 μg/ml. Conversely, different resistance rates to
ampicillin,
amoxicillin and
erythromycin between isolates were detected.
Cefovecin is thus shown to be effective in vitro against anaerobic bacteria isolated from dogs and cats with
periodontal disease.