The Bacterial Flora of the Trachea, Liver, Spleen and Heart Blood of Chicken

A total of 184 tracheas, 147 livers, 150 spleens and 148 hearts from apparently healthy and dead chickens were sampled and the bacterial flora was determined. The bacteria most commonly cultured from these four organs of healthy birds were Staphylococcus spp., Streptococcus spp., and Escherichia coli. Escherichia coli, Aeromonas spp., Staphylococcus spp., Proteus spp., and Citrobacter spp., were the common isolates from dead chickens. Pasteurella haemolytica was present in small numbers in the trachea, liver and spleen of healthy chickens and liver, spleen and heart of dead chickens. INTRODUCTION Little information is available on the bacterial flora of the trachea, liver, spleen and heartblood of apparently healthy chickens and those that were dead because of unknown aetiology or disease manifestation. Price et al. (1957), Smibert et al. (1958) and Bisgaard ^1977) stated that the tracheal flora of healthy chickens consisted primarily of gram positive microorganisms. A shift to a predominately gram negative flora in chickens with respiratory disease has been reported by Biddle and Cover (1957), Price et al. (1957) and Bisgaard (1977). Mushin et al (1980) postulated that Pasteurella haemolytica is a member of the normal flora of the respiratory tract of chickens and is also involved in pathological lesions (Bisgaard, 1977; Mushin et ai, 1980). Hacking and Pettit (1974) isolated P. haemolytica from liver and heart blood of pullets and layers with high mortality rate and decline in egg production. Addo and Mohan (1985) isolated atypical P. haemolytica Type A from nodular necrotic liver and heartblood of domestic fowl. Recently Shah-Majid et al. (1986) isolated P. haemolytica from five spleens with white foci from 3 week-old chickens that were on Newcastle disease vaccination trial. The purpose of this study was to determine Part of junior author's Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Animal Industry Project. M. SHAH MAJID AND H. JAH the bacterial flora of the trachea, liver, spleen and heart blood of apparently healthy and dead chickens in the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) Poultry Unit and from a private poultry farm.'Since Shah-Majid et al. (1986) reported the presence of P. haemolytica in the spleen of chickens, it was decided to record the incidence of this organisms in these four organs of healthy and dead birds. The Pasteurella haemolytica described in this paper are those organisms that are gram negative slender long rods. Piechulla et ai (1985) suggested that these organisms do not belong to the Genus Actinobacillus as suggested by Mraz in 1969 but probably a new genus be created for them. MATERIALS AND METHODS Organ samples of healthy chickens were obtained from the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) commercial unit. A total of 100 tracheas, 64 livers, 64 spleens and 63 hearts were randomly selected from these healthy chickens. These chickens were slaughtered by the 'Halal' method and all organs were sampled within one to two hours after slaughter. Organ samples from dead chickens were collected from a private poultry farm at Dengkil, Selangor, UPM commercial unit and from the post mortem room of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, UPM, Serdang. A total of 84 tracheas, 83 livers, 86 spleens and 85 hearts were collected from these dead chickens. At necropsy all dead birds were examined grossly. The age group of the dead chickens varied from one to sevenweek-old while the healthy chickens were sevenweek-old. All samples were inoculated onto blood agar and MacConkey agar. The tracheas were swabbed and then inoculated onto these two media. The livers, spleens and hearts were imTABLE1 Isolation of bacteria from various organs of healthy 7 week-old chickens Staphylococcus spp. Streptococcus spp. Escherichia coli Micrococcus spp. Enterobacter spp. Bacillus spp. Citrobacter spp. Pasteurella haemolytica Klebsiella spp. Aeronomas spp. Salmonella spp. Yersmia spp. Edwardsiella spp. Proteus spp. Acinetobacter spp. Pseudomonas spp. Corynebacterium spp. Trachea 95 60 42 22 12 4 2 2