Small Ruminants Abscesses: Bacterial Etiology, Antibiogram and Haematological Study in the East of Saudi Arabia

Health and productivity of sheep and goats are affected greatly by superficial and deep abscesses. This study aimed to investigate the bacterial causative agents and their antibiogram of local and foreign breeds of sheep and goats abscesses in in Alhasa and Dammam areas of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A total of 37 and 29 species of were isolated from local and foreign breed sheep and goats abscess respectively. In local breed, Kocuria varians isolation rate was 11.67%, then K. rosea (7.42%), K. kristinae (6.99%), Streptococcus uberis, Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, Sphingomonas paucimobilis (6.55%), C. pyogenes (3.93%), Staph. aureus subsp. anaerobius (3.49%). In foreign breed, K. varians and K. rosea of (11.67 %), Acineto. lwoffii (7.35%), Sp H. paucimobilis, Strept. uberis (5.88 %), Staph. aureus subsp. anaerobius (4.41%). This is the first report for isolation of Kocuria spp. from sheep and goats abscesses as reports of this species from animals are meagre. The prevalent isolates showed high degree of resistance to commonly-used antibiotics. Haematological analysis showed significant increase of granulocytes count (P = < .05) in the affected sheep and goats (50.3± 2.7% & 47.5± 5.8%) compared to control ones (40.6± 2.5%& 44±5.4%). In leucocytes, significant increase (P = < .05) in the affected sheep than normal animals but goats showed no difference. Contrary, the lymphocyte percentage significantly decreased (P= < .05) in diseased sheep and goats abscesses (45.07± 1.17%) as compared with control group (52.6 ± 1.8%). The study indicated that abscesses in sheep and goats did not affect erythrocytes count or haemoglobin content.