The purpose of this study was to determine whether male garter snakes require intact vomeronasal or olfactory systems to detect the pheromone that triggers the chin-pressing behavior of courtship. Male garter snakes (Thamnophis radix) with testosterone propionate pellets implanted subcutaneously were tested for courtship displays with estradiol benzoate treated females. Three groups of 10 males were formed from snakes exhibiting strong courtship responses. Bilateral olfactory nerve cuts were attempted on one group, vomeronasal nerve cuts on a second; control surgeries were performed on a third. After postoperative testing, the heads of the snakes were histologically processed for lesion verification. All snakes in the olfactory nerve cut and control groups courted after surgery, and three snakes in each group copulated. More than half of the snakes in the olfactory nerve cut group had complete nerve cuts. Nine of the 10 snakes in the vomeronasal nerve cut group exhibited no courtship responses after surgery. The one snake in this group that courted was the only snake in which intact vomeronasal nerve fascicles were observed. These data indicate that male garter snakes without functional olfactory systems do court and mate normally but that male garter snakes without functional vomeronasal systems exhibit no courtship responses.Garter snakes normally go into a period Sexually active males move toward and exof intense mating activity in the early spring plore any moving snake, but a species-spe- (Aleksiuk & Gregory, 1974;Bellairs, 1959). cific chemical must coat the female's dorsal On warm early spring days males emerge skin for a male to court the female (Devine, from the hibernaculum, and as females 1976; Kubie, Cohen, & Halpern, 1978; Noble, emerge, they are vigorously courted (Alek-1937; Kubie, Cohen, & Halpern, Note 1). siuk & Gregory, 1974;Carpenter, 1952; Fitch, When a female has this estrogen-dependent 1965). Visual and pheromonal cues nor-pheromone on her skin, the male exhibits the mally guide males to females (Noble, 1937; first stage of courtship by pressing his chin, Blanchard & Blanchard 1941;Bellairs, 1959). lips, and snout against the skin of the female while rapidly moving up and down the fe-This research was part of a doctoral dissertation male > b ,f £-we call this behavior "chin submitted by John L. Kubie to the State University of pressing." Chin pressing straightens out the New York Downstate Medical Center. The research body of the female, and if the female moves, was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant the male ardently pursues her. After several NS11713. We wish to thank Ruu-Tong Wang for his minutes O f chin pressing, the male aligns his advice on histological processing, Jack Ulan for assis-, •, .,, .iv/? 11 j j. t.-u j tance with the photography, and Rose Krausfor typing bod y wlth the female S and rests his head the manuscript.

Garter snakes that are used for scientific laboratory studies or kept as exotic pets often become ill and die early in captivity. They may also act as reservoirs of potential human pathogens or transmit infection to man. A total of 126 strains of aerobic and facultative bacteria, most potential human and snake pathogens, were isolated from 82 garter snake oropharyngeal cultures. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species were the most common species isolated. Acinetobacter

The susceptibility of 93 aerobic and 59 anaerobic bacteria isolated from human and animal bite wounds was determined by agar dilution. No agent tested (penicillin, oxacillin, cephalexin, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, minocycline, erythromycin, and RU-965) was consistently active against all isolates. A total of 21% of the Bacteroides species, all isolated from human bites, were resistant to penicillin; 14 and 18% of the Pasteurella multocida isolates were resistant to erythromycin and oxacillin, respectively.Bite wounds are common injuries and account for approximately 1% of all emergency room visits (5). Infectious complications are frequent and include cellulitis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and even fatal sepsis. Isolates are most often those from the oral flora of the biter and include both aerobic and, in 33 to 55% of cases, anaerobic bacteria (10, 11). To date, the information available regarding the susceptibility of bacteria isolated from bite wounds comes from studies that have focused on a single organism, such as Pasteurella multocida, DF-2, or Eikenella corrodens (2,7,8,16,17). In addition, these studies have often used veterinary isolates and strains obtained from general clinical specimens other than bite wounds.We determined the susceptibility of 93 aerobic and 59 anaerobic bacteria to seven oral antimicrobial agents, including a new macrolide antibiotic, RU-985. This new agent has a structure and an antibacterial spectrum similar to that of erythromycin, but gives higher and more sustained plasma and tissue levels, according to the manufacturer (HoechstRoussel Pharmaceuticals Inc., Somerville, N.J.).The purpose of this study was (i) to use only strains isolated from bite wounds, (ii) to study recently isolated strains to look for the emergence of resistance, (iii) to study the susceptibility of these isolates to oral antibacterial agents since many of these wounds are treated with oral antibiotics and outpatient follow-up, (iv) to supply these data in a single paper since no previous study combines this information, and (v) 3. The numbers and species of isolates tested are given in Table 1.Standard laboratory powders were kindly supplied by the following companies: penicillin G, cephalexin, and erythromycin, Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.; oxacillin, Bristol Laboratories, Syracuse, N.Y.; minocycline, Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, N.Y.; sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (SXT), Hoffman-La Roche Inc., Nutley, N.J.; and RU-965, Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals Inc., Somerville, N.J.Strains were taken from frozen stock culture and transferred twice to ensure purity and good growth. Because of the diversity of the isolates tested, strains of various types were handled differently, according to accepted appropriate methods for the particular organism. Anaerobic bacteria were cultured and inocula were prepared by the methods outlined in the Wadsworth Anaerobic Bacteriology Manual (in press). Isolates of E. corrodens were cultured and inocula were prepared by the methodology previously estab...

The susceptibilities of 44 clinical strains and a reference strain (ATCC 23834) of EikeneUa corrodens were determined by agar dilution. All isolates were very susceptible (MICs, <2 ,ug/ml) to amifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, difloxacin, enoxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, and Win 35439. Eikenella corrodens is a fastidious gram-negative rod that has been implicated as a pathogen in a variety of infections including abscesses, dental infections, sinusitis, osteomyelitis, lower respiratory tract infections, and endocarditis (1-4, 6, 8, 10, 11). Multiple prior studies have reported that all clinical strains of E. corrodens were susceptible to penicillin G (1, 5, 9). Recently, Trallero et al. (12) reported the isolation of beta-lactamase-producing E. corrodens from intraabdominal abscesses in a 10-year-old boy. Consequently, they recommended that clinical laboratories should now "initiate susceptibility studies of these organisms." E. corrodens is resistant to clindamycin, penicillinase-resistant penicillins, and currently available oral cephalosporins (1, 5). There is, therefore, a need for an oral antimicrobial agent that is consistently active against E. corrodens.The new quinolones are a group of oral agents that have a broad spectrum of activity (13). They are currently undergoing clinical trials in a variety of situations in which E. corrodens is a potential pathogen (7). We therefore studied the in vitro activity of penicillin, vancomycin, and new and old quinolones against members of our stock strain collection, as well as against 20 recently isolated strains of E. corrodens.All 44 strains tested were clinical isolates and were identified by standard criteria (1). ries, Carson, Calif.) supplemented with 5 ,ug of hemin per ml and 0.25% Fildes enrichment (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.) and incubated overnight in 5 to 10% CO2. The turbidity of growth was adjusted to one-half of a McFarland standard no. 1. Mueller-Hinton agar plates were supplemented with 5% sheep blood and quinolone concentrations from 16 to 0.004 ,ug/ml. Penicillin G concentrations ranged from 0.3 to 40 ,ug/ml, and vancomycin concentrations ranged from 0.25 to 64 ,ug/ml. The plates were inoculated with a Steers replicator (Craft Machine Inc., Chester, Pa.). Antimicrobial solutions were freshly prepared for each test according to the instructions of the manufacturers. Control plates without antimicrobial agents were inoculated before and after each series of antimicrobial agent-containing plates was inoculated. All plates were incubated in 5 to 10% CO2 for 48 h and then examined. Control strains (E. corrodens ATCC 23834, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922) were tested simultaneously on each run.

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