Published in Scientific Works. Series C. Veterinary Medicine, Vol. LX (1)
Written by Aurel VASIU, Mihaela NICULAE, Emoke PALL, Marina SPÎNU
Escherichia coli is one of the main inhabitants of the intestinal tract of most mammalian species and birds. In veterinary medicine, the presence of microbial carrier estate led to numerous studies on the presence, persistence and importance of E. coli in broiler chickens and has motivated epidemiological studies on bacterial contamination levels on the farms. Swabs from cloaca of intensively raised broiler chickens were randomly (2%) sampled along with sanitation samples after disinfection on the same farm. All samples were processed by use of conventional, OIE approved, bacteriological techniques to identify bacteria indicating faecal pollution of zoonotic importance. Strains passed to selective media were biochemically tested and identified by use of API20E kits (France, Lyon). The most important bacterial strain in the cloaca isolates was E. coli (68.75%), followed by Proteus vulgaris (18.75%) and Escherichia hermannii (12.5%). After disinfection, the swabs from surfaces tested constantly positive for Proteus spp, which proved to resist to broad spectrum disinfectants applied repeatedly, according to the technology. Both bacteria with pathogenic potential from the carried microbial flora and those isolated from surfaces represented a major risk, and could constitute a major cause of epidemic outbreaks under inappropriate technological circumstances.
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