PASTEURELLA MULTOCIDA ISOLATED IN RABBITS: SEROLOGIC TYPES AND EXPERIMENTAL INFECTION

Out of 239 nasopharyngeal swabs obtained from apparently healthy and diseased rabbits, the prevalence rate of P. multocida was 7.9%. Such rate was lower among apparently normal rabbits (3.8%) and higher among diseased rabbits (9.1%). Out of the 19 isolates of P. multocida, serotype (3: A) was the most predominant (42.1%), followed by serotype (12: A) with an incidence of 31.6%, then serotype (15: D) in an incidence of 10.5%. An attempt was done to study the in vitro chemotherapeutic sensitivity of all isolates of P. multocida. Gentamicin and penicillin were the best drugs of choice against P. multocida infection in rabbits.  Experimental intranasal infection with serotype (3: A) showed that the mortality rate was 80%. Clinical signs and postmortem examination were described in details. Gentamicin is the best drug for the initial therapy of infection with P. multocida with mortality rate not exceed 10.0% followed by penicillin with mortality rate reached 40.0%.