Studies on the Prevalence of Enterobacteriaceae in Chickens and Chicken eggs

This study was done to investigate the prevalence of the Enterobacteriaceae in chickens and eggs. Isolation of forty four different bacterial isolates belonging to Enterobacteriaceae from chicken egg samples, cloacal swabs and swabs from Hatcheries’s floor, the isolates from commercial flock swabs were biochemically identified as E coli, P. mirabilis E Sakazakii and E .cloacae by incidence 22%, 55 %, 11% and 11 % respectively. The isolates from Layers and broilers breeder cloacal swabs were biochemically identified to be E. coli, P. mirabilis E. fergusonii and E .cloacae by incidence 20 %, 20 %, 20% and 40 % respectively. The isolates from commercial eggs were biochemically identified to be Pantoea Sp. , Kluyvera sp., E Sakazakii , E.aerogenes and E.harmanii by incidence 33.3% , 16.6% , 16.6% , 16.6% and 16.6 % respectively. The isolates from fertilized egg samples were biochemically identified as E Sakazakii , E. fergusonii , E.coli , E. Cloacae , Aeromonas ,S. Anatum and Prov. Alcolifaciens with a number of 1 ,1, 3, 3, 2, 2 and 1 , incidence 8% , 8% , 23% , 23% , 15% , 15% and 8 % respectively. The incidence of Enterobacteriaceae isolates from floor swabs of both primitive and automatic hatcheries was 20.8 % and these isolates were biochemically identified to be Pantoea spp., Citrokoserilama, k.pneumo. Ozaenae and E .cloacae with number 2, 1, 1 and 1 also its incidence were 40%, 20%, 20% and 20 % respectively. We found that the most common isolated bacterium from eggs either fertilized orcommercial table eggs in our study was E.coli although we could isolate other bacterial species as Enterobacter, Proteus species , Escherichia fergusonii; E. Sakazakii, Klebsiella sp., S. anatum, and Pseudomonas sp..In-vitro sensitivity test of the isolated strains to various chemotherapeutic agents revealed that all isolates were sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin, and Amoxicillin.