Isolation of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale from chickens and turkeys

A total of 251 tracheal swabs and a total of 102 tracheae, lungs, airsacs, livers and spleens were collected from commercial layer, broiler and broiler parent stock flocks with respiratory infection. From turkey flocks, 96 tracheal swabs and 5 tissue samples from the trachea, lung, airsac, liver and spleen were also taken. Cultivations on Blood Agar supplemented with 51 10%sheep blood, on Chocolate Agar and on MacConkey Agar were incubated at 37degreesC for 24-72 hours in the presence of 10%CO(2)Gram staining was carried out for the smooth and non-hemolytic colonies 1-3 mm in diameter and for those showing grayish pigmentation after approximately 48 hours of culture. Cram negative pleomorphic rods were considered to be Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) and other conventional tests were made as follows: hemolysis, motility, spore formation, growth on MacConkey and TSI agars, catalase, indol, sorbitol, inositol, rafinose, trehalose, xylose, dulcitol, nitrate, methyl red, oxidase, beta-D galactosidase, urease, glucose, galactose, lactose, maltose, fructose and Voges-Proskauer. ORT was isolated from none of the samples taken from turkeys, broiler or broiler parent stock flocks. However, two ORT isolations were achieved from two commercial pullets aged 12 and 15 weeks. One of these isolates was serotyped as "B" by the ACP test while the other was not found to belong to any of the serogroups. Both of the isolates were found to be susceptible to oflaxacin, erythromicin, lincomycin, amoxicillin, and amoxicillin+clavulonic acid by antibiotic suspectibility tests.