2008 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 15-16
To know the mechanism of harboring Salmonella in wild snakes, newborn snakes hatched from 57 eggs obtained from 10 Japanese wild snakes were examined for the prevalence of Salmonella. Of the newborn snakes born from mother snakes that were Salmonella positive, 50 to 100% of newborns carried Salmonella and Random amplified polymorphic DNA profiles were consistent in 50% of the isolates from mother and newborns, while Salmonella were not isolated from any newborn snakes born from mother snakes that were Salmonella negative. Meanwhile Salmonella were not isolated from 8 eggs that were obtained from 3 female snakes by aseptic dissection, although these mother snakes carried Salmonella. Most of the 25 newborn snakes excreted Salmonella in high densities ranging from 104 to 109CFU/g over 310 days after birth. These results indicated that the vertical infection of Salmonella is organized in wild snakes and snakes already carry Salmonella at the time of birth and excreted a high density of organisms over a long period. Consequently, it is suggested that reptiles may carry Salmonella as a part of the normal bacterial flora in their intestinal tract
