Diversity of Bacteria And Fungi in the Prepuce of Camels (Camelus dromedarius)

Abstract

A total of 42 infertile male dromedary camels (4-12 years old, 500-800 kg) and 7 young male camels (control, 2-2.5 years old) were enrolled in the present study. All camels were sedated and preputial swabs were collected and immediately immersed in 1 ml sterile solution of 0.9% NaCl. Preputial swabs were transferred refrigerated within 1 hour to the bacteriological laboratory. After preputial swabbing, semen samples were collected from infertile camels using an electro-ejaculator and evaluated for routine semen quality parameters using the conventional methods. Statistical analyses were conducted by Student’s t-test and Chi-square (X2). Results revealed that semen parameters were reduced in infertile camels with preputial contamination. The bacterial count in 1 ml swab sample was 148x103 and 0.24x103 in infertile mature camels and control immature camels, respectively. Nine bacterial species isolated from 49 camels’ preputial swabs comprised 41 gram-positive species (83.7%) and 8 gram-negative species (16.3%). The swabs of infertile camels had colonies species of Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Corynebacterium, Bacillus, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Actinomyces, Fusobacterium, Clostridium perfringens at percentages of 35.72% (n=15), 21.43% (n=9), 11.91% (n=5), 9.52% (n=4), 7.14% (n=3), 4.76% (n=2), 4.76% (n=2), 2.38% (n=1), 2.38% (n=1), respectively. Candida colonies appears in concurrence with bacterial colonies in 28.57% (n=12). In control camels, the examined samples had colonies of Streptococcus spp., Bacillus spp. and E. coli spp. at proportions of 42.86% (n=3), 42.86% (n=3), 14.28% (n=1), respectively. Candida spp. observed in 5 colonies (71.43%) of control camels. In conclusion, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Bacillus were the frequently isolated bacterial spp. from prepuce of camel.