Microbial flora in the ears of healthy experimental beagles

There are studies of the microbial flora of the normal canine ear canal, but it is difficult to compare their results because the parts of the ear examined are not described, and various breeds of dogs were used. Therefore, we used only beagles to study the normal microbial flora in three parts of the ear: the pinna, the anthelix, and the vertical ear canal. The rates of bacterial isolation from the three parts were 91.8%, 70.5% and 48.8%, respectively. The corresponding rates of isolating yeasts was 48.8%, 81.4%, and 83.7%, respectively. These results show that the physiologic factors of the three parts of the ear from which the samples were obtained must be radically different.