Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral disease of the cloven-hoofed animals leading to severe economic losses to livestock industry. The disease is clinically characterized by pyrexia, vesicles on the mouth, muzzle, tongue, teats, inter digital space etc with high morbidity and low mortality in affected adults. However, the immunesuppression due to Foot-and-mouth disease virus may lead to development of secondary bacterial infection in the affected animals as a cause of mortality. Many of such secondary bacterial invaders have been reported. The present study revealed Pseudomonas spp. as monoculture from an outbreak leading to mortality in cattle and buffaloes. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a ubiquitous bacterium, known to cause nosocomial infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and respiratory system infections are supposed to produce high case fatality rate in immune-suppressed host due to severe toxaemia and drug resistance. The isolates were subjected to antibiotic sensitivity test. Of the 10 antibiotics tested, bacteria were highly resistant to amoxyclav, enrofloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, intermediate sensitive to penicillins, gentamicin and tylosine, and sensitive to amikacin, ceftriaxone+tazobactum and cefotaxim. The present study concludes that FMD outbreak was followed by secondary bacterial infections of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which might have entered in the circulation through the lesions in tongue and foot. Moreover, immunosuppression due to FMD further led to colonization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in critical body organs, such as the lungs, heart and kidney leading to severe mortality. Hence, the control of secondary invaders should be considered on priority to avoid the mortality in the outbreak situations.