Bacteriological and Pathological Study on Pneumonia in the One-Humped Camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Jordan

Abstract

In general, literature about camel pneumonia is scarce. In this study, 284 lungs of slaughtered camels (6 months to 10 years of age) from northern Jordan were examined. Pneumonia prevalence was 10.2%. Pathological lesions of pneumonic lungs showed the presence of chronic proliferative bronchopneumonia, chronic pleuropneumonia and interstitial pneumonia. Lung abscesses were also recorded. Chronic proliferative bronchopneumonia (20.69%) and chronic pleuropneumonia (6.9%) were more frequent in older camels (about 10 years of age), while interstitial pneumonia (58.6%) and lung abscesses (10.34%) were more frequent in young camels (6 months to 4 years of age). Mannheimia haemolytica and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the most frequent isolates from cases of chronic proliferative bronchopneumonia and chronic pleuropneumonia, while Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. were the most frequent isolates from cases of interstitial pneumonia. Staphylococcus aureus, Actinomyces pyogenes and hemolytic streptococci were the most frequent isolates from lung abscess cases. A total of 75 bacterial isolates were collected from the 29 pneumonic lungs. The most frequent were E. coli (26.66%), Klebsiella spp. (14.66%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12%), Staphylococcus aureus (10.66%), Mannheimia haemolytica (6.66%) and Actinomyces pyogenes (6.66%). Klebsiella ozaenae was the most frequent among the Klebsiella species identified.