A B S T R A C TThis study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in apparently healthy pigeons at the live bird markets, farms and villages in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. Cloacal swabs (n = 36), foot pads (n = 36) and feces (n = 40) of pigeons were collected aseptically and inoculated onto various culture media for isolation of Salmonella. Identification of Salmonella from culture positive samples was performed by cultural characteristics, Gram's staining and biochemical tests. The prevalence of Salmonella in cloacal swabs, foot pads and feces was 22.22%, 58.33% and 27.50%, respectively. The overall prevalence of Salmonella in pigeons was 35.71%. Pigeons at live bird markets, farms and villages showed a 40.48%, 20% and 30% prevalence of Salmonella, respectively. Antibiotic sensitivity tests of the Salmonella was performed by the disc diffusion method against 10 randomly used antibiotics. The highest rate of resistance was found with amoxicillin (90%) followed by ampicillin (80%), erythromycin (80%) and tetracycline (60%). The highest rate of sensitivity was recorded to ciprofloxacin (80%) followed by sulphamethoxazole (70%), chloramphenicol (60%), kanamycin (60%), gentamicin (60%) and nalidixic acid (60%). Data from this study suggest that pigeons carry multi-drug resistant Salmonella which can be transferred to humans through direct contact or the food chain and could cause a potential public health hazard.

A B S T R A C TTo determine prevalence of antimicrobial resistant Escherichia coli in pigeon a total of 112 samples such as cloacal swabs (n=36), foot pads (n=36) and feces (n=40) were collected from pigeon aseptically. Samples were enriched in nutrient broth and then streaked onto eosine methylene blue agar, Salmonella-Shigella agar, MacConkey agar and blood agar. The cultural and biochemical characteristics of bacterial isolates of pigeon were indicative of E. coli. The prevalence of E. coli in cloacal swabs, foot pads and feces samples were 86.11%, 44.44% and 77.50%, respectively. The overall prevalence of E. coli in pigeon was 69.64% (78 of 122 samples were found positive for E. coli). The antibiotic sensitivity pattern showed that E. coli isolates were sensitive to erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid and resistant to amoxicillin, tetracycline and sulphamethaxazole. It may be concluded that pigeons from Mymensingh locality in Bangladesh carry multidrug resistant E. coli. Data of this study will be helpful in creating public health awareness among people and help controlling transmission of drug resistant E. coli by undertaking effective sanitary and hygienic measures.

The study was performed with a view to collect epidemiological data to proper control of duck salmonellosis in Bangladesh. A total of 12 small to medium sized duck farms and 28 individual households were visited for data collection. On the basis of history and clinical signs and as per the information provided by the farmers the prevalence rate of duck salmonellosis was recorded as 38.1% and the P value was calculated as 0.003 (p<0.01) which was noted as highly significant. Based on tentative occurrences of duck salmonellosis as per information taken from the structured questionnaire a total of 120 fecal samples were collected from apparently healthy and diseased ducks on the basis of age, sex, season, location and health status. The isolated bacteria were identified by studying cultural properties on different selective media, biochemical tests, and finally by PCR. The test results of cultural and biochemical exhibited the typical characteristics of bacteria. On the basis of their cultural and biochemical characteristics it was found that among 120 fecal samples 32 (26.67%) were found to be positive for Salmonella and the P value was recorded as 0.0019 (p<0.01) which was also considered as highly significant. In motility test duck Salmonella were identified as motile and all tested duck Salmonella showed indole and VP test negative with MR test positive. In PCR reaction, the organism was further confirmed as Salmonella species using the SAL-G primer.Results of antibiotic susceptibility test shows that the selected isolated Salmonella were highly sensitive to ciprofloxacin and azithromycin, intermediate sensitive to tobramycin and gentamicin and resistant to oxacillin.