A Study On The Prevalence Of Potential Zoonotic Bacterial Pathogens Among Household And Pet Shop Pigeons And Their Emergence Of Multidrug Resistant Strains, In And Around The Longwood, The Nilgiris

The study was aimed to reveal the prevalence of bacterial pathogen among the household and pet shop pigeons in and around the Longwood, The Nilgiris. The swab samples were collected from 50 pigeons. It Consisted of cloacae swab, foot pad swab, handler swab and faeces sample. Samples were immediately inoculated into suitable media and eleven bacterial pathogens were identified. The pigeon from both home and pet shop showed to harbor more of E.coli and Staphylococcus aureus than the other pathogens. The antibiogram profile showed ; E.coil isolates were 60% resistant towards tetracycline and ampicilin and Staphylococcus aureus isolates were 48.8% resistant to ampicillin. Among the 4 different kinds of samples , cloacae and foot pad carried most of the pathogens. The home and pet shop pigeons carried the threatening multidrug resistant strains of E.coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The antibiogram patterns of the total isolated avian pathogens showed 78.4% sensitive towards chloramphenicol, gentamycin and exhibited resistance towards tetracycline and ampiciline. Among the 118 isolates, more than 25% are found to be Multidrug resistant strains (MDR).