The microflora of teat canals and udder cisterns in non-lactating dromedaries

The teat canals and mammary gland cisterns of 30 necropsied omniparous non-lactating dromedaries aged between 8 and 20 years were microbiologically investigated. In total 242 teat canals and 242 cisterns were swabbed from which 36 different bacterial species comprising 17 families were isolated. In total 24% teat canals and 22% mammary cisterns harboured bacteria colonies but they grew only in very low numbers of between 1 to 13 colonies per agar plate. It can be stated that our investigation revealed that a high number of dromedary glands are either sterile or harbour only a low number of mainly non-mastitis pathogens.