NORMAL VAGINAL BACTERIAL FLORA OF GIANT PANDAS (AILUROPODA MELANOLEUCA) AND THE ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERNS OF THE ISOLATES.

In order to study the typical vaginal bacterial flora of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), we took vaginal swabs for the sake of bacterial isolation, from 24 healthy female giant pandas. A total of 203 isolates were identified, representing a total of 17 bacterial species. The most common bacteria isolated were Lactobacillus spp. (54.2%, 13 of 24), followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (41.7%, 10 of 24) and Escherichia coli (33.3%, 8 of 24). Some opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, such as Peptostreptococcus spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis, were also isolated but showed no pathology. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of aerobic bacterial isolates was performed with disk diffusion method. Of the 152 isolates, resistance was most frequently observed with chloramphenicol (17.8%), followed by tetracycline (14.5%), ciprofloxacin (12.5%), streptomycin (11.8%), and florfenicol (11.8%), while 7.2% were multidrug resistant. This is the first report of the normal vaginal culturable bacterial flora of giant pandas, followed by the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the isolates.

NORMAL VAGINAL BACTERIAL FLORA OF GIANT PANDAS (AILUROPODA MELANOLEUCA) AND THE ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERNS OF THE ISOLATES.

To study the typical vaginal bacterial flora of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), we took vaginal swabs for the sake of bacterial isolation, from 24 healthy female giant pandas. A total of 203 isolates were identified, representing a total of 17 bacterial species. The most common bacteria isolated were Lactobacillus spp. (54.2%, 13/24), followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (41.7%, 10/24) and Escherichia coli (33.3%, 8/24). Some opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, such as Peptostreptococcus spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae , and Proteus mirabilis , were also isolated but showed no pathology. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of aerobic bacterial isolates was performed with the disk diffusion method. Of the 152 isolates, resistance was most frequently observed with chloramphenicol (17.8%), followed by tetracycline (14.5%), ciprofloxacin (12.5%), streptomycin (11.8%), and florfenicol (11.8%), whereas 7.2% were multidrug resistant. This is the first report of the normal culturable vaginal bacterial flora of giant pandas and the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the isolates.

The normal vaginal and uterine bacterial microbiome in giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca).

While the health effects of the colonization of the reproductive tracts of mammals by bacterial communities are widely known, there is a dearth of knowledge specifically in relation to giant panda microbiomes. In order to investigate the vaginal and uterine bacterial diversity of healthy giant pandas, we used high-throughput sequence analysis of portions of the 16S rRNA gene, based on samples taken from the vaginas (GPV group) and uteri (GPU group) of these animals. Results showed that the four most abundant phyla, which contained in excess of 98% of the total sequences, were Proteobacteria (59.2% for GPV and 51.4% for GPU), Firmicutes (34.4% for GPV and 23.3% for GPU), Actinobacteria (5.2% for GPV and 14.0% for GPU) and Bacteroidetes (0.3% for GPV and 10.3% for GPU). At the genus level, Escherichia was most abundant (11.0%) in the GPV, followed by Leuconostoc (8.7%), Pseudomonas (8.0%), Acinetobacter (7.3%), Streptococcus (6.3%) and Lactococcus (6.0%). In relation to the uterine samples, Janthinobacterium had the highest prevalence rate (20.2%), followed by Corynebacterium (13.2%), Streptococcus (19.6%), Psychrobacter (9.3%), Escherichia (7.5%) and Bacteroides (6.2%). Moreover, both Chao1 and abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE) species richness indices, which were operating at the same sequencing depth for each sample, demonstrated that GPV had more species richness than GPU, while Simpson and Shannon indices of diversity indicated that GPV had the higher bacterial diversity. These findings contribute to our understanding of the potential influence abnormal reproductive tract microbial communities have on negative pregnancy outcomes in giant pandas.