Abstract
Fecal bacterial flora was examined comparatively in ducks and chickens on some ordinary poultry farms and on a farm where both types of poultry had been fed together. The results obtained are as follows.
1. In ducks kept on the ordinary poultry farms, the fecal bacterial flora was composed of Streptococcus (8.1 as expressed with the logarithm of bacterial count), which was predominant, Bacteroidaceae (6.5), Enterobacteriaceae (5.9), and Lactobacillus (5.9). In chickens kept on these farms, the flora consisted of Lactobacillus (8.7), which was predominant, Streptococcus (5.9), Enterobacteriaceae (5.4), and Bacteroidaceae (5.2).
There was a significant difference in the bacterial count of each of streptococcus, Bacteroidaceae, and Lactobacillus between both types of poultry.
2. A significant difference was recognized in the bacterial count of each of Enterobacteriaceae and Lactobacillus in the duck among these poultry farms. This was the same to the case of the bacterial count of each of Enterobacteriaceae and Streptococcus in the chicken.
3. In both types of poultry which had been fed together under the same conditions since the day of hatching, fecal bacterial flora was examined at the age of 11 weeks. As a result, there was almost the same difference in the bacterial count of each species between both types of poultry as that observed on the ordinary farms above.
