Oral microflora of stray domestic cats (Felis catus) found in the premises of two human hospitals in Sokoto, Nigeria

A study was carried out to identify the various bacterial species in the oral cavity of cats in two human hospitals in Sokoto, Nigeria. The buccal cavities of 26 cats (14 from Hospital A and 12 from Hospital B were liberally swabbed for bacterial evaluation. The samples were enriched in peptone water, inoculated on McConkey and Blood agar, and incubated aerobically at 37°C for 24hrs. The isolates were Gram stained and subjected to biochemical characterization for identification. A total of 51 bacterial isolates were made. There were Staphylococcus aureus 18 (35.3%), Micrococcus spp. 9 (17.7%), Pasteurella spp. 5 (9.8%), Streptococcus spp. 5 (9.8%), Yersinia spp. 4 (7.8%), Bacillus spp. 4 (7.8%), Listeria spp. 3 (5.4%) and Corynebacterium spp. 3 (5.9%). Staphylococcus aureus has the highest frequency of isolation 18 (35.3%).