Bacterial Isolates in Asio Otus and Strix Aluco Bids of Prey

Abstract

Birds of prey such as long-eared owl (Asio otus) and little owl (Strix aluco) is a special category because of their direct contact with many species of wild rodents representing a vector for transmission of microbial agents in some territories. The study describes the types of bacteria isolated from long-eared owl and little owl and the sensitivity of these strains to antibiotics. The biological material was represented by Asio otus and Strix aluco adults representing casuistry from Clinical Hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca during the period December 2014-April 2015. Sampling was performed from the cloaca, oral, axillary region and skin wounds. The identification of bacteria was carried out by bacteriological examinations using phenotypic techniques and thereafter isolates were tested regarding antibiotic susceptibility by disc diffusion method. Tests showed an increased amount of bacterial species in the mouth and cloaca. On the skin only a smaller number of bacteria types was isolated, while from skin wounds bacterial species number was the lowest. We observed that in most cases the type of bacteria in the oral cavity and cloaca is the same, predominantly bacteria of the genus Escherichia, Bacillus, and staphylococus . The sensitivity tests demonstrated that most tested strains were susceptible to Enrofloxacin, and Florfenicol. The antibiotic that resulted in the lowest susceptibility was Amoxicillin. This study lead to the isolation of major and conditioning pathogenic bacteria species predominantly from mucous membranes in Strix aluco and Asio otus . It was also observed a high sensitivity of the isolated bacteria strains to antibiotics currently used in birds.