Characteristics of the bacterial flora in the conjunctival sac of cats from Poland

Abstract

The conjunctival sac in cats was sterile in over 50% of the clinically healthy cats and 25% of the cats with conjunctivitis. The sterility did not persist for longer than 4 weeks. Positive bacterial cultures occur in cats with and without clinical signs of conjunctivitis.

Microbiota of the conjunctival sac of 120 healthy cats

“…The ocular microbiota of cats has been described to consist mainly of Gram‐positive bacteria, but Gram‐negative and fungal species may also present in a small amounts . In this study, 86 isolates were detected.…”

“…Many factors, such as season, geography, temperature, housing, as well as age, sex, and breed, are described to affect the frequency and composition of the microbiota of the ocular surface in horses, dogs, cats, and alpacas …”

“…Staphylococcus spp. were the most frequently isolated Gram‐positive species in cats . Gram‐negative bacteria were quite uncommon, and Pseudomonas spp.…”

Conjunctival bacterial and fungal flora and cutaneous fungal flora in healthy domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

“…Regarding bacterial cultures, none of the cats displayed three consecutive negative bacterial results, with a maximum period of sterility of 1 month (Kiełbowicz et al . ). In our study, 38 and 53% of rabbits had consecutive sterile cultures for bacterial and fungal cultures, respectively.…”

“…As in our report, numerous studies in human and veterinary medicine have examined the commensal flora of the ocular surface using traditional microbiology techniques (Cooper et al . , Dong et al , Kiełbowicz et al ). Although these conventional culture‐based techniques are easily available and cost‐effective, all suffer from one main limitation in that they detect only a fraction of the microbiota.…”