Fourteen-year survival of Pseudomonas cepacia in a salts solution preserved with benzalkonium chloride.

A strain of Pseudomonas cepacia that survived for 14 years (1963 to 1977) as a contaminant in an inorganic salt solution which contained commercial 0.05% benzalkonium chloride (CBC) as an antimicrobial preservative, was compared to a recent clinical isolate of P. cepacia. Ammonium acetate was present in the concentrated stock CBC solution, and served as a carbon and nitrogen source for growth when carried over into the salts solution with the CBC. The isolate's resistance to pure benzalkonium chloride was increased step-wise to a concentration of 16%. Plate counts showed 4 x 10(3) colony-forming units per ml in the salts solution. Comparison of growth rates, mouse virulence, antibiotics resistance spectra, and substrate requirements disclosed no differences between the contaminant and a recently isolated clinical strain of P. cepacia. The results indicate that it is critical that pharmaceutical solutions containing benzalkonium chloride as an antimicrobial preservative be formulated without extraneous carbon and nitrogen sources or be preserved with additional antimicrobial agents.