MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 27 snake carcasses presented for necropsy at the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) were used in this survey. Samples were aseptically obtained at necropsy from different organs/tissues (lung, liver, heart, kindey, oesophagus, lymph node, stomach, spinal cord, spleen, intestine) and cultured onto 5% blood and McConkey agar, respectively. Gram staining, morphological evaluation and biochemical test such as oxidase, catalase and coagulase were used to tentatively identify the presumptive bacterial isolates.
RESULTS: Pythons had the highest number of cases (81.3%) followed by anaconda (14.8%) and boa (3.7%). Mixed infection accounted for 81.5% in all snakes and was highest in pythons (63%). However, single infection was only observed in pythons (18.5%). A total of 82.7%, 95.4% and 100% of the bacterial isolates from python, anaconda and boa, respectively were gram negative. Aeromonas spp was the most frequently isolated bacteria in pythons and anaconda with incidences of 25 (18%) and 8 (36.6%) with no difference (p > 0.05) in incidence, respectively, while Salmonella spp was the most frequently isolated in boa and significantly higher (p