ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MICROFLORA FROM APPARENTLY HEALTHY CAGED PARROTS OF DHAKA ZOO OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The research work was conducted to isolate and identify the microflora from apparently healthy caged parrots. A total of 45 samples (oral swabs, cloacal swabs and feces) were collected from five types of caged parrots (Gray cockatiels, Rose ringed parakeet, Alexandriane parakeet, Red breast parakeet and Blossom headed parakeet) of Dhaka Zoo during the period from April to August 2009. The samples were cultured on different bacteriological media and the bacteria were identified by their cultural and biochemical properties. All the isolates were allowed for antibiogram study. The bacteria isolated in this study from different types of caged parrots were E. coli (64.44%), Salmonella spp. (46.67%), Staphylococcus spp. (46.67%), Pasteurella spp. (33.33%), Proteus spp. (6.67%) and some unidentified Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Of these isolates, E. coli was the most frequent isolate. The frequency of Gram-negative bacteria was higher in this study. The percentage of bacterial isolates recovered from each type of parrots was almost similar. Irrespective of types of parrots, the higher percentage of different bacteria was isolated from cloacal swab (77.78%) followed by feces (75.56%). The 68.89% isolates were recovered from oral swab. All the suspected isolates of Salmonella spp. were confirmed by slide agglutination test using Salmonella polyvalent ‘O’ antiserum. Among the 21 Salmonella spp. isolated in this study, 4 (19.05%) isolates were identified as S. Pullorum when tested with specific antisera against S. Pullorum. The results of antibiotic sensitivity tests revealed that ampicillin and amoxicillin were completely resistant to E. coli and Pasteurella spp.; ampicillin to Proteus spp.; and furazolidone to Salmonella spp. and Pasteurella spp. However, the antibiotics of fluoroquinolone group such as ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and enrofloxacin showed moderate to high sensitivity against almost all the bacterial isolates. Of these, ciprofloxacin was found to be consistently highly sensitive to all the bacterial isolates. DOI = 10.3329/bjvm.v8i1.8349 Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2010). 8(1): 05-10