Abstract
Conclusions
The death rate among baby chicks fed an adequate ration plus sulfaguanidine at the level of 1 g per 100 g body weight per day is less than half that occurring when a mixture of p-aminobenzoic acid, thiamin and riboflavin or a suspension of E. coli are administered with the drug. These facts, together with the tendency of both the vitamins and bacterial suspension to sustain the coliform bacteria in the feces in the presence of an inhibitory concentration of the drug, suggest that the tolerance of sulfaguanidine by young birds may be related to the activities of the coliform bacteria in the intestinal tract.
Our findings do not, in themselves, constitute a contra-indication to the clinical use of sulfaguanidine, for the level of drug employed here is much in excess of the effective therapeutic dosage. They serve only to emphasize the apparently fundamental and complex relationship of vitamins and intestinal bacteria to the action of sulfaguanidine in vivo.
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