Abstract:
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 an d 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 bact erial 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%).
