Detection of Klebsiella pneumonia in Broiler Chickens at Ismailia City, Egypt

Enany, Mohamed; El-Mahallawy, Heba; Mohammed, Wafaa E. I.; Hassan, Wafaa M; Abdelkarim, Abdelkarim

doi:10.21608/scvmj.2023.228958.1139

Detection of Klebsiella pneumonia in Broiler Chickens at Ismailia City, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Bacteriology & Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt

² Department of Zoonoses

³ Free Veterinarian

⁴ Chief research, Technical manager of Microbiology, Reference lab. of Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute

⁵ Professor of Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine- Suez Canal University

10.21608/scvmj.2023.228958.1139

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family. Although the bacteria are commonly present in the intestinal tract of animals, they represent a major threat to public health in other circumstances. The emergence of hypervirulent strains of K. pneumoniae may induce critical community-acquired and hospital-acquired infections. This study aimed to detect K. pneumoniae in broiler chickens from Ismailia City, Egypt. A total of 481 samples (liver, spleen, heart, lung, trachea, and cloacae) of broiler chickens were submitted for bacteriological examination. Furthermore, isolates were confirmed by the detection of the 16S rRNA gene using PCR and serologically tested. OverallK. pneumoniae isolates, based on the conventional culture and biochemical identification, were 65 out of 481 chicken organ samples (13.5 %). The recovery rate was variable according to the organ of isolation, where a higher detection rate was reported from the heart (30%) followed by the lung (14.11%) and spleen (13.68%), while the liver (10%), tracheal (9.76%) and cloacal swabs (8%) showed lower rates. Using PCR, all tested isolates were positive for the 16S rRNA gene. The hypermucoviscous phenotype (HMV/hvKp) of K. pneumoniae isolates was detected using “string test”. The occurrence of hvKp (85%) was higher than classic K. pneumoniae (cKp) (15%). In detection of capsular serotypes K1 and K2 among the examined K. pneumoniae isolates; K1 serotype was more prevalent among hvKP isolates (88,2%) while the K2 serotype was less prevalent (15%). Findings in this study showed a high occurrence of K. pneumoniae in apparently healthy broiler chickens indicating that these chickens might be an important reservoir for human and animal infections and suggesting their potential threat to food safety.

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