Isolations of aerobic bacteria from wild desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni and O. c. mexicana) in Arizona.

Abstract

Nasal, pharyngeal, cervical and vaginal swab specimens were obtained from 74 desert bighorn sheep for the purpose of investigating the normal aerobic bacterial flora of wild sheep. A total of 281 isolates was obtained and identified by standard microbiologic tests. One hundred seven of these isolates were gram positive and included Bacillus sp. (36%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (8%), S. aureus (4%), Corynebacterium sp. (diphtheroids, 4%), and Streptococcus sp. (48%). gram negative isolates totaled 174 and included Neisseria sp. (18%), Citrobacter sp. (3%), Enterobacter sp. (2%), Escherichia coli (2%), Proteus sp. (2%) and non-fermentative bacilli (NFB) (73%). Of the NFB isolates, Pseudomonas sp. (25%), Acinetobacter sp. (18%), Moraxella sp. (15%) were identified.