ABSTRACT

Poultry birds especially broilers are plagued with a lot of diseases leading to high mortality and huge economic loses. Diagnosis often relies on observation and post mortem analysis- practices why are grossly inadequate and often result in poor outcomes. This current research was to isolate and identify bacterial isolates from blood culture samples of broilers. A total of five (5) sick broilers were collected and transported to the microbiology laboratories for bacteriological analysis. Five (5) ml each of blood samples were aseptically obtained from the veins in the wings of each broilers. An aliquot of 1ml each were dispensed into blood culture bottle containing Thioglycollate broth and Brain heart infusion media. Each pair were incubated at 37 ⁰C for 3-7days and observed for bacterial growth. A further 3ml each were separately dispensed into EDTA for heamatological analysis. Samples from blood culture bottles were sub-cultured onto already prepared sterile nutrient agar plate and incubated overnight for bacterial isolation. The isolates were identified using cultural (shape, size, colour, elevation and margin), morphological (cell type, cell arrangement) and biochemical (oxidase, indole, catalase) characteristic. The antibiogram of the bacterial isolate was carried out by subjecting bacteria to routinely used antibacterial agent of poultry. The bacterial counts of the blood samples obtained in this study ranged from 4.70 × 10³±5.60 to 15.16 × 10³ ± 4.0 Using the standard microbiological method (cultural, morphological, biochemical and sugar fermentation test), the isolate obtained in this study were Micrococcus sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus sp., Bacillus sp. And Escherichia coli. The frequency of occurrence of the isolates namely Micrococcus sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus sp., Streptococcus sp. and Escherichia coli was 16(19.5), 20(24.4), 12(14.6), 12(14.6) and 22(26.8) respectively.  Staphylococcus in this study was susceptible (100%) to ciprofloxacin and was resistant to zythromycin, amoxicillin, ampiclox and erythromycin, Streptococcus was susceptible (100%) azithromycin, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin but was resistant to amoxicillin, ampiclox and zythromycin, Bacillus sp was susceptible (100%) to ciprofloxacin, zythromycin, ampiclox and levofloxacin but was resistant to ampiclox while Escherichia coli and Micrococcus were susceptible (100%) to ciprofloxacin but were resistant to zythromycin, amoxicillin, ampiclox and azithromycin. Micrococcus, Bacillus, Streptococcus, E. coli, and Staphylococcus are among the bacterial pathogens that can adversely affect the health and productivity of broiler chickens. These bacteria can cause a range of clinical conditions, including respiratory tract infections, enteritis, septicemia, and dermatitis to poultry