Bacterial culture
To assess the growth of aerobic bacteria, swab samples were cultured on blood agar as well as MacConkey agar, and also cultured in broth agar. The cultures were incubated at 37C for 24-48 hours to allow sufficient time for bacterial growth. Bacterial colonies were isolated from 17 out of 20 horses. The grown bacterial colonies were separately cultured again in the aforementioned mediums. A total of 101 bacteria were isolated from the samples. The bacterial genera were identified based on cellular morphology, gram-staining, and biochemical tests, including the oxidation/fermentation (OF) test, catalase, oxidase, gelatinase, urease, and potassium hydroxide tests. In cases where necessary, the species of the bacteria were also identified using the same methods(Wang et al., 2008).