Bhoj R Singh¹*, Mathesh Karikalan², Abhijit M Pawde², Ravichandran Karthikeyan¹, Dharmendra K Sinha¹, Varsha Jaykumar¹, Akanksha Yadav¹ and Himani Agri¹

¹Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, India

*Corresponding Author: Bhoj R Singh, Head Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, India.

Received: July 13, 2022; Published: July 25, 2022

Abstract

Abortions are multietiological disorders of pregnancy interfering with reproduction, and bacteria are often the most common cause of in-utero death of foetii. The study was conducted to understand the bacteria associated with abortion and foetal death in big cats. Bacteriological analysis of aborted foetii samples (heart blood, stomach contents, liver, spleen, kidneys and lunges etc.) from lions (two) and tigers (four) revealed presence of bacteria of 11 different species viz., Aerococcus spp., 10; Alcaligenes faecalis, 1; Bordetella bronchiseptica, 2; Enterobacter agglomerans, 3; Enterococcus faecalis, 1; Enterococcus malodoratus, 4; Escherichia coli, 11; Falvobacterium aquatile, 2; Klebsiella pneumoniae ssp. pneumoniae, 4; Pasteurella canis, 4 and Streptococcus milleri, 1 from aborted foetii of big cats. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the bacteria isolated from contents of aborted foetii indicated that 65.12% bacterial isolates were multiple drug-resistant (MDR), 60.47% had multiple herbal antimicrobial drud-resistance (MHDR), 13 isolates were resistant to carbapenems and 12 produced extended spectrum β-lactamases. All Gram-negative bacterial isolates were susceptible to colistin and all Gram-positive isolates to linezolid but none of the other antibiotic could inhibit ≥80% of the isolates. However, all the isolates were susceptible to thyme oil and carvacrol and only 2.35%, 4.65%, 9.30%, 16.28% and 30.23% were resistant to cinnamaldehyde, cinnamon oil, holy basil oil, ajowan oil and lemongrass oil, respectively. In four cases of abortion in tigresses, Escherichia coli, Bordetella bronchiseptica, Pasteurella canis and Flavobacterium aquatile might be associated with abortions. In lionesses, E. coli appeared to be important bacteria associated with abortion. The study concluded that many different types of MDR bacteria may be invading the foetii. The study clearly indicated that just isolation and identification of bacteria from aborted foetii may not be conclusive in determining the cause of abortion in lions and tigers and microbiological results must be interpreted carefully.

Keywords: Big Cats; Escherichia coli; Bordetella bronchiseptica; Pasteurella canis; Flavobacterium aquatile; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Streptococcus milleri; Enterococcus faecalis; MDR; Carbapenem-resistance

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Citation

Citation: Bhoj R Singh., et al. “Antimicrobial Susceptibility Patterns of Bacteria Isolated from Aborted Foetuses of Lions (Panthera leo) and Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris)". Acta Scientific Microbiology 5.8 (2022): 116-123.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Bhoj R Singh., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.