Isolation of pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes in faeces of wild animals in captivity

The isolation of pathogenic Listeria spp. in faecal samples of captive wild animals was studied. Isolation of the pathogen was attempted from the samples by selective enrichment in University of Vermont Medium and plating onto Dominguez-Rodriguez isolation agar, PALCAM agar and modified McBride Listeria agar. Pathogenicity of the isolates was tested by Christie, Atkins, Munch Petersen test, phosphotidylinositol-specific phospholipase C assay, mice inoculation test and chick embryo bioassay. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from eight (16%) of 50 faecal samples from six different mammals and one bird. Out of eight isolates, one isolate from jackal proved to be pathogenic by all the pathogenicity testing assays. PCR amplification of virulence genes suggested that the isolate was potentially pathogenic.