Vol. 9, Issue 9, Part A (2023)

Abstract
Snakebites are a great public health concern in tropical and subtropical countries. It cannot only cause poisoning but also sometimes yield some infections in victims. There are some pathogenic agents in the snake’s oral and cloacal cavity. This study was carried out to determine bacterial agents present in the oral and cloacal cavity of Spectacled cobra (Naja naja) which were rescued from snake charmers and human-snake conflict situations at Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Oral and cloacal samples were collected in sterile condition from 20 rescued cobras (10 from each group). Later the samples were subjected to microbial culture to understand the aerobic microflora present in oral and cloacal cavity. The results revealed both the oral and cloacal swabs found positive bacterial microflora with a majority of swabs yielding multiple organisms. The most common organisms isolated were Pseudomonas Spp., Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Clostridia Spp., Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Candida glabrata and Enterococcus faecium are known human pathogens and also affected snake health.