A retrospective study was conducted to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among Pasteurella spp recovered from cattle with bovine respiratory disease complex. The study extended from January 1976 through May 1980, and included a review of the necropsy records of 386 beef cattle. Susceptibility or resistance of the Pasteurella isolants was determined by using the standard disk diffusion susceptibility test. Each isolant was tested for susceptibility with 15 different antimicrobial agents. A high prevalence of resistance (greater than 80%) was found when Pasteurella was tested with triple sulfonamides. For P haemolytica isolants, 57% to 70% were resistant to ampicillin (56/97), penicillin (58/101), and streptomycin (70/100); for unidentified Pasteurella spp isolants, 64% to 91% were resistant to ampicillin (83/129), penicillin (89/129), and streptomycin (118/129). For P haemolytica (21/100) and P multocida (34/146) isolants, 21% to 23% were resistant to tetracycline. Most of the P multocida isolants did not show marked antimicrobial resistance to 9 of the 15 drugs tested. However, 58% of the P multocida isolants (84/145) were resistant to streptomycin and 88% of them were resistant to three combined sulfonamides (126/144).
