Prevalence and in Vitro Antibiogram of Bacterial Agents Associated with Omphalitis in Poultry Chicks in Nwfp

The present study was conducted for the isolation of bacterial agents and in vitro antibiogram of the isolates from the yolk and visceral organs of up to one week old broiler and layer chicks suffering from omphalitis. Samples from the yolk and visceral organs were aseptically collected and cultured on various selective and differential media. The isolated organisms were identified and subjected to commonly used antibiotics for determination of antibiogram. During the period of 39 months (May, 2002 to August, 2005), 330 samples from yolk and visceral organs were taken from those chicks which were not medicated with antibiotics, as per history provided by the poultry farmers. Among these, 223(68%) showed bacterial growth. Various bacteria isolated were Escherichia coli (47.93%), proteus (5.87%), mixed infection (3.59%), streptococci (2.89%), klebsiella (1.79%), salmonella (0.5%), staphylococci (0.5%), pseudomonas (0.5%), pasteurella (0.5%) and yarseinia (0.5%). The antibiotics found most effective were Norfloxacin (45.3%), Enrofloxacin (36.81%), Gentamicin (33.21%), Chloramphenicol (33.21%), Cephradin (25.1%), Augmentine (24.7%), Kanammycin (17.5%) and Ampicillin (12.1%).