Susceptibility of Coxiella burnetii to pefloxacin and ofloxacin in ovo and in persistently infected L929 cells.

The relative lack of efficacy of the antibiotic treatment of chronic Q fever endocarditis justifies the further evaluation of the susceptibility of Coxiella burnetii to the modern quinolone antibiotics. We evaluated the efficacies of pefloxacin and ofloxacin in controlling the Nine Mile isolate of C. burnetii by using an embryonated egg assay and persistently infected L929 cells in culture. Pefloxacin was effective in controlling the intracellular parasite at a concentration of 50 micrograms per egg and 1 microgram/ml in cultures of infected cells. Ofloxacin was effective at a concentration of 25 micrograms per egg and 0.5 microgram/ml in infected-cell cultures. In light of the fact that the concentrations of antibiotics used fall within physiological ranges used in humans, ofloxacin and pefloxacin may be useful in the clinical management of chronic Q fever, for which, to date, results have been poor.