Nucleotide analysis and prevalence of Escherichia coli isolated from feces of some captive avian species

The aim of the study was to check the prevalence of Escherichia coli in some captive avian species, sea-sonal effect on the E.coli prevalence and analysis of nucleotide sequences of E.coli. A total of 132 samples, 33 from Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), 33 form Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), 33 from Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulates) and 33 from Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) were collected from Conservation and Research Center, UVAS, Ravi Campus, Pattoki. Colony forming units was quantified for each sample. E. coli confirmation was done by biochemical and molecular characterization. 16S rRNA was amplified and sequenced. 16S rRNA sequence was submitted to NCBI under the accession num-ber MN841017, MN841018 and MN841019.Descriptive statistics showed the mean +/- SEM value for E. coli CFU/ml of fecal sample from Turkey 1.91 x 108 +/- 4.4 x 107, for Pheasants, the mean +/- SEM was 1.55 x 108 +/- 5.2 x 107 CFU/ml of fecal sample. The mean +/- SEM of the fecal sample for Budgerigars and Chukar were 2.12 x 108 +/- 3.3 x 107 CFU/ml and 1.6 x 108 +/- 4.5 x 107 CFU/ml respectively. Inferential statistics showed that regardless of the bird species, there was almost a similar frequency of E. coli CFU/ml of fecal sample (p = 0.74). However, the incidence of E. coli fluctuates significantly depending on the season in the case of turkey and pheasants, and the impact was statistically significant (p < 0.0005). E.coli was most prevalent in Turkey during rainy summer and in Pheasants during cool dry winter. These findings show that accidental or direct contact with feces of these captive birds have pos-sible risk of gastric illness to humans and animals. Furthermore, understanding the mechanisms driving the seasonality of this important zoonotic pathogen will allow for the execution of effective control strategies when it is most prevalent.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).