Abstract
Sheep are considered as an important part of livestock in the worldwide, particularly in Iraq, as they provide meat, milk, leather, wool, and manure. The present study aim is isolation and identification of staphylococci, enteric bacteria and Pseudomonas spp. Totally, 115 samples were collected from sheep (100 samples were collected from the nasal cavity of local sheep suffering from respiratory infections, and 15 samples were collected from apparently healthy local sheep). All the samples were collected from seven flocks located in Abu Ghraib and Al-Radwaniyah, Baghdad governorate, Iraq. The samples were taken during the period from October 2020 to February 2021. Staphylococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp., andenteric bacteria were detected firstly by using classical diagnostic methods, and secondly they were identified to the species level by using the corresponding analytical profile index (API 20 staph, API 20NE and API 20E) and via the Vitek2 system. Importantly, from nasal swabs, 79% bacterial isolates were obtained, including Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, Raoutltella planticola, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus among others. The antimicrobial susceptibility test showed multi-drug resistant S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae. To conclude, several aerobic bacteria were isolated from the nasal cavity of diseased sheep. An extensive study is needed to determine the economic and public health impacts of these bacteria.
Highlights
Small ruminants, especially sheep are valuable possessions for the Southeast Asian, Mediterranean, and African countries that benefited from their milk, meat, and wool [1,2,3]
While staphylococci accounted for 27% of the isolates, only 6% of the bacteria belonged to Pseudomonas spp. (Table 1)
While K. pneumoniae accounted for 8.7% of the enteric bacteria, each of Raoutltella omithinolytica and Pantoea spp. had isolation rates of 6.5% among other family members (Table 1)
Summary
Especially sheep are valuable possessions for the Southeast Asian, Mediterranean, and African countries that benefited from their milk, meat, and wool [1,2,3]. In sheep-rearing countries, infections of the respiratory tract are of major concern due to their impacts on the income and nutrition of people [4,5]. Respiratory infections, regardless of their etiology, can affect animals at any age, and contribute to 5.6% of all diseases that occur in the small ruminants [2]. Disorders of the respiratory infections are classified into upper and lower respiratory tract diseases [1,2]. The nature of these infections could be acute, chronic, or progressive based on the etiological, physiological, and environmental factors [2]. The mortality rates due to epizootic respiratory infections were reported to range from 10-90% in the affected sheep [7]
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