Comparative rectal bacterial flora of four species of flying fox (Pteropus sp.).

The rectal anaerobic and aerobic bacterial flora of four species of flying foxes were determined and compared. Four bacterial species were found in > or = 1 individual from each bat species at a significant (> or = 10%) level of the bacterial population: alpha-hemolytic Streptococcus sp. (41 of 56 bats), Enterococcus sp. (25/56), Escherichia coli (21/ 56), and group D Streptococcus sp., not Enterococcus sp. (9/56). Five other microbial species were also found in all four flying fox species, but at less significant percentages (found in at least one bat species, > or = 5% and < or = 10% of the recovered microbial population). These were nonhemolytic Streptococcus sp. (30/56), yeast (26/56), Corynebacterium sp. (25/56), Staphylococcus sp. (25/56), and Staphylococcus aureus (22/56). The majority of the species found were gram-positive, and only two obligate anaerobes, a Lactobacillus and a Bacteroides sp., were recovered from one bat.