NORMAL VAGINAL BACTERIAL FLORA OF GIANT PANDAS (AILUROPODA MELANOLEUCA) AND THE ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERNS OF THE ISOLATES

Abstract

In order to study the typical vaginal bacterial flora of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), we took vaginal swabs for the sake of bacterial isolation, from 24 healthy female giant pandas. A total of 203 isolates were identified, representing a total of 17 bacterial species. The most common bacteria isolated were Lactobacillus spp. (54.2%, 13 of 24), followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (41.7%, 10 of 24) and Escherichia coli (33.3%, 8 of 24). Some opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, such as Peptostreptococcus spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis, were also isolated but showed no pathology. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of aerobic bacterial isolates was performed with disk diffusion method. Of the 152 isolates, resistance was most frequently observed with chloramphenicol (17.8%), followed by tetracycline (14.5%), ciprofloxacin (12.5%), streptomycin (11.8%), and florfenicol (11.8%), while 7.2% were multidrug resistant. This is the first report of the normal vaginal culturable bacterial flora of giant pandas, followed by the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the isolates.

Isolation and identification of culturable fungi from the genitals and semen of healthy giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

“…Previous studies performed isolation and identification of bacteria from the vaginas, foreskins, and semen of giant pandas [ 11 , 14 ]. This study investigated the fungal flora in these samples.…”

“…The microbial flora of giant pandas are significantly different from those of other animals due to their unique diet and habitat [ 22 ]. The identification of these fungal species from the healthy pandas suggests that they may be part of the normal fungal flora of the reproductive tract and that they may serve as a barrier against infectious agents [ 14 ]. These species may otherwise cause diseases when they reach and grow in locations different from the reproductive tract [ 23 ].…”

Analysis of the vaginal microbiome of giant pandas using metagenomics sequencing

“…Subsequently, each swab was immediately dipped in 2 ml phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) in sterile 5 ml screw-cap tubes (Yang et al, 2017). These samples were transported to the Animal Disease Prevention and Food Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province and stored in freezers at −80°C until the DNA extraction procedure (Yang et al, 2016(Yang et al, , 2017. The 14 vaginal samples taken from these giant pandas were divided into two groups based on age and region (Yang et al, 2016(Yang et al, , 2017.…”

“…DNA purity and concentration were determined using 1% agarose gel electrophoresis before being sent to the Novogene Bioinformatics Technology Co. Ltd. The metagenomic sequencing of these DNA samples was performed by the quay Co. Ltd (Chen & Pachter, 2005;Yang et al, 2016Yang et al, , 2017 on the Illumina HiSeq sequencing platform and dual-end sequencing (paired-end).…”

“…On par with the pigs (De Puysseleyr et al, 2014;Schautteet & Vanrompay, 2011), cattle (Knudtson & Kirkbride, 1992), and horse's (Cafarchia et al, 2013) vaginal microbiome investigations, the vaginal microbiome of the giant panda was also investigated. These studies provided a comprehensive description of bacterial community composition in the vagina, uterus, and fungal community composition in the vagina of healthy giant pandas along with the diversity and abundance of these microbes (Chen et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2016Yang et al, , 2017.…”