Biochemical properties of Pasteurella multocida strains isolated from poultry

The API 20E test and standard methods were applied to examine biochemical features of P. multocida strains. All tested isolates decomposed glucose, mannitol and saccharose. Sorbitol and arabinose were fermented by 82% and 43% of the strains, respectively. Xylose, trehalose, and dulcitol were fermented by 30%, 13% and 4% of isolates, respectively. All the tested strains produced catalase, ornithine decarboxylase, cytochrome-oxidase, indole, and reduced nitrates to nitrites. Moreover, the strains did not reveal motility and did not grow on MacConkey agar and failed to ferment maltose. Our findings enabled the recognition of ten distinct biochemical types, termed biovars I to X, and permitted the assignation of the strains into 3 subspecies. Of the isolates tested, 78% were identified as P. multocida subsp. multocida, 8.1 % as P. multocida subsp. septica, and 4% as P. multocida subsp. gallicida according to Mutters et al. ( 12). On the other hand, 9.7% of the strains were not classified as one of the three subspecies.