Vet World   Vol.15   December-2022  Article-22

Research Article

Veterinary World, 15(12): 2922-2928

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.2922-2928

The prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of Staphylococcus spp. on ocular surfaces of fighting bulls (Bos indicus) in Thailand

Dennapa Saeloh Sotthibandhu1, Saowakon Indoung2, Husna Niwasawat2, Jiradchaya Chaiboon2, Nattakan Sungsorn2, Nu-issana Longji2, Kittipol Polya3, Chayanee Noosak1, Stefan Schwarz4,5, and Tanawan Soimala2
1. Faculty of Medical Technology, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
2. Faculty of Veterinary Science, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
3. Thunderbolt Fighting Bull Clinic, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
4. Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics, Centre for Infection Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, 14163 Berlin, Germany.
5. Veterinary Centre for Resistance Research (TZR), Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, 14163 Berlin, Germany.

Background and Aim: Fighting bulls have a high risk of eye injuries, and opportunistic conjunctival bacterial flora may cause subsequent eye diseases. There is little information about the ocular health care of fighting bulls in Thailand. Thus, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of Staphylococcus spp. from the eyes of fighting bulls and investigate their antimicrobial susceptibility.

Materials and Methods: The samples were collected from the right conjunctival sacs of 105 fighting bulls. Biochemical tests and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry were used to identify bacteria to genus and species levels. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by agar disk diffusion.

Results: Staphylococcus spp. (36.84%, 56/152) were the most detected bacteria. The most prevalent Staphylococcus spp. was Staphylococcus chromogenes (37.50%, 21/56). The susceptibility test revealed that all isolates were susceptible to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (56/56, 100%) and most were susceptible to chloramphenicol and gentamicin (54/56, 96.43%). The highest resistance rates were seen for tetracycline and doxycycline (23.21%, 13/56) followed by erythromycin (19.64%, 11/56). In addition, S. chromogenes isolates were evaluated for their ability to produce biofilms by a quantitative biofilm production assay. A total of 21 isolates exhibited biofilm production, independent of their antimicrobial susceptibility. Three multidrug-resistant isolates were found, including two Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates and a single S. chromogenes isolate.

Conclusion: As antimicrobial resistant bacteria were detected on the eye surface, veterinarians should always conduct antimicrobial susceptibility testing before using antimicrobial agents. The results from this study will help to improve the standard of eye treatment for fighting bulls in Thailand. Keywords: antimicrobial susceptibility, conjunctival flora, fighting bulls, Staphylococcus spp.

Keywords: antimicrobial susceptibility, conjunctival flora, fighting bulls, Staphylococcus spp.

How to cite this article: Sotthibandhu DS, Indoung S, Niwasawat H, Chaiboon J, Sungsorn N, Longji N, Polya K, Noosak C, Schwarz S, and Soimala T (2022) The prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of Staphylococcus spp. on ocular surfaces of fighting bulls (Bos indicus) in Thailand, Veterinary World, 15(12): 2922–2928.

Received: 10-08-2022  Accepted: 18-11-2022     Published online: 24-12-2022

Corresponding author: Tanawan Soimala   E-mail: tanawan.soimala@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.2922-2928

Copyright: Sotthibandhu, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.