Sensitization of bacteria to danofloxacin by temperate prophages.

Danofloxacin (CP-76,136) is in a class of agents that inhibit DNA gyrase and trigger induction of the SOS response and temperate bacteriophages. Killing studies against the bovine pathogen Pasteurella haemolytica demonstrated that danofloxacin exhibits particularly rapid killing kinetics. Here, lysogenic Escherichia coli bearing lambda is found to be more sensitive to danofloxacin than nonlysogenic E. coli. Danofloxacin exposure also induced a prophage in P. haemolytica. The potency of danofloxacin against lysogens in likely enhanced by this prophage induction.