Dominant culturable bacterial microbiota in the digestive tract of the American black vulture (Coragyps atratus Bechstein 1793) and search for antagonistic substances

Abstract

Strict and facultative culturable anaerobic bacteria from the digestive tract of six American black vultures (Coragyps atratus Bechstein 1793) were isolated and identified. After capture, the birds received a noncontaminated diet for one week to eliminate possible allochthonous microorganisms. Then, specimens collected from tongue, stomach and intestines were weighed, submitted to decimal dilution in an anaerobic chamber, inoculated into culture media and incubated aerobically and anaerobically at 37ºC for enumeration, isolation and identification. Isolated bacteria were submitted to tests to detect possible antagonisms between them. The total bacterial population along the digestive tract ranged from 3.46 ± 0.39 log CFU/g in the stomach to 10.75 ± 0.37 log CFU/g in the distal intestine. Some bacteria were isolated for the first time from the digestive tract of C. atratus: Actinomyces bovis, Lactobacillus cellobiosus, Micrococcus luteus, Neisseria sicca, Clostridium bifermentans, Enterobacter agglomerans, Peptostreptococcus sp., Sarcina sp., Serratia odorifera, and Shigella flexneri. Associations between microorganisms were observed during isolation on two occasions, one involving A. bovis and N. sicca, and the other involving A. bovis and a Gram-negative rod. Hetero-, iso-and autoantagonisms were observed, suggesting the ecological role of these indigenous microorganisms in terms of population auto-control and environmental barrier in the digestive tract of carrionfeeding birds.

Yeast microbiota of raptors: a possible tool for environmental monitoring

“…Besides, the American black vulture ( C . atratus ) is a scavenger species (Carvalho et al. , 2003), thus, prey ingestion would not play an important role for the recovery of resistant yeasts.…”

“…However, this possibility seems less likely because Fortaleza is a big city where agriculture is not a common practice. Besides, the American black vulture (C.atratus) is a scavenger species (Carvalho et al, 2003), thus, prey ingestion would not play an important role for the recovery of resistant yeasts.…”

Non-pathogenic Neisseria: members of an abundant, multi-habitat, diverse genus

“…N. flavescens was isolated from the caecumwhile N. flavescens, N. Sicca and N. meningitidis (based on 16S rRNA sequencing of individual colonies) from the cloaca in bobwhites. However, by culture, N. sicca was only identified in the tongue sample of one of six American black vultures, and not from any lower intestinal site (De Carvalho et al, 2003).…”

Evaluation of the heteroantagonism between Enterobacter agglomerans strains isolated from vulture (Coragyps atratus) for production and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as developed

“…Staphilococcus saprophyticcus, Staphilococcus aureus e Escherichia coli, respectivamente, evidenciando que um fenômeno de antagonismo poderia estar envolvido nos mecanismos de resistência apresentados por essa ave (Silva 1999;Carvalho et al, 2003).…”