Bacteriological study of dead-in-shell embryos of ostrich

In order to study the bacterial flora of dead-in-shell ostrich chicks, twelve unhatched eggs which did not have external pipping during the hatching period were transferred to the laboratory of microbiology. The egg shells were accurately disinfected and the embryos were removed and placed in a sterile plate. The surface of each embryo was swabbed with a sterile swab which was also plunged through the yolk sac and the embryo contents and the swab were inoculated into tryptic soy broth (TSB) or nutrient broth. To enrich Salmonella spp., another swab was prepared as above and inoculated into Selenite-F broth. These media were incubated at 37°C for 24 h and then subcultured by streak plate method on solid media. Different bacterial colonies on solid media were isolated in pure cultures for further identification. The results of this study showed that the predominant bacterial flora of dead-in-shell embryos of ostrich were Bacillus spp. (45%) and Staphylococcus spp. (25%).