Abstract
The present work aimed to determine the oral microbiotic composition of snakes from Sao Jose do Rio Preto city, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Ten snake species, comprising the families Boidae, Colubridae, Elapidae and Viperidae, were submitted to microbiological examination of their oral cavity, which indicated positivity for all buccal samples. Gram-negative bacilli, gram-negative cocci bacilli, gram-positive bacilli and gram-positive cocci were isolated from the snakes. Among isolated bacterium species, the occurrence of coagulase-negative staphylococci in the buccal cavity of Crotalus durissus (Viperiade), Eunectes murinus (Boidae), Mastigodryas bifossatus (Colubridae) and Bacillus subtilis, common to oral cavity of Bothrops alternatus (Viperidae) and Phalotris mertensi (Colubridae), was detected. It was observed higher diversity of isolated bacteria from the oral cavity of Micrurus frontalis (Elapidae) and Philodryas nattereri (Colubridae), as well as the prevalence of gram-positive baccillus and gram-positive cocci. The composition of the oral microbiota of the studied snakes, with or without inoculating fangs, is diverse and also related to the formation of abscesses at the bite site in the victims of the ophidian accidents, and to pathogenic processes in the snakes that host these microorganisms.
Highlights
Studies on oral microbiota of snakes are rare in Brazil and the existing reports are mainly on the Bothrops genus, which is involved in most of the reported accidents [15]
Higher bacterial diversity was found in the oral cavities of M. frontalis and P. nattereri (Table 1)
In the current study, concerning the Viperidae snakes, Bacillus subtilis was isolated from B. alternatus, Yersinia enterocolitica from B. pauloensis and a coagulasenegative staphylococcus from C. durissus
Summary
Studies on oral microbiota of snakes are rare in Brazil and the existing reports are mainly on the Bothrops genus, which is involved in most of the reported accidents [15]. Envenomation caused by this snake genus is characterized by inflammation and tissue destruction that leads to infection and abscess formation [6,7,8,9]. Several hypotheses try to explain infectious origins in lesions caused by ophidian accidents. In one of these theories, bacteria – from the venom, mouth and fangs of snakes – are involved [8, 11,12,13,14]. Oral microbiota composition of snakes from the municipality of São José do Rio Preto, state of São Paulo, Brazil, was determined
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