ANAEROBIC AND AEROBIC BACTERIOLOGY OF THE SALIVA AND GINGIVA FROM 16 CAPTIVE KOMODO DRAGONS ( VARANUS KOMODOENSIS): NEW IMPLICATIONS FOR THE “BACTERIA AS VENOM” MODEL – Goldstein et al. 2013
Introduction:
Komodo dragons have mandibular venom glands that are attached to their teeth which aid in killing prey. The analysis of the venom had shown that it had components similar to snake venom which cause coagulopathy, hypotension, hemorrhage and shock. They also proposed that the venom was actually secondary to the mechanical action of biting which caused more damage through lacerations and rapid death from excessive blood loss. However there are theories that the bacteria found in the mouth of Komodos may also be helping in taking down prey. Since people are bitten by Komodos sometimes, thus this study hopes to shed light on the bacterial effects of a komodo bite by sampling saliva.
Methods:
n= 16, 10 adults of 5 of each gender and 6 hatchlings. They sampled saliva using swabs a day after they were fed for adults and for hatchlings – 3 of them were done a day after a meal and the other 3 were swabbed before ever having consumed a meal. Samples were then inoculated for anerobic cultures and aerobic cultures. Aerobic media included sheep blood, chocolate, and Rose & MacConkey agars. Anaerobic media included Brucella blood, phenyl-ethyl alcohol blood, laked blood with kanamycin and vancomycin, bacteroides bile esculin and egg yolk agars. Check paper for more specifics about the methods.
Results:
128 strains were isolated with 87 aerobic and 41 anaerobic. Hatchlings grew aerobes but no anaerobes. There was a variation between individuals from different zoos with some zoos having unique bacterial profiles that were not present in other individuals and vice versa.
Discussion:
Basically like previous papers state, the komodo dragon has numerous species of flora present in their saliva but most of which are harmless. The idea that the bacteria aid in killing prey is largely false and the giant lizards rely more on their bite and venom rather than their oral bacterial population.
Al3xandria 