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 37◦C 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).