Sukumar, KRavi Sundaresan, NRajkumar, KNagarajan, KSukumar, KandasamyDorairajan, NTANUVAS2019-10-302019-10-302006http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810133378TNV_IJPS_2006_ 41(1)105-107Heavy mortality of embryos during incubation causes economic loses to hatcheries. Antibiotic treatment of fertile eggs prior to their incubation is being widely followed for improving hatchability. Considering the importance of bacterial infections in reduced hatchability, the present study was aimed to isolate and characterize bacteria from dead-in-shell embryos in hatcheries and to assess their antibiotic sensitivity to enable selection of suitable antibiotics for egg dipping. Bacterial isolation attempts were made from 120 dead-in-shell embryos collected from four commercial hatcheries in Namakkal area of Tamilnadu at the time of their transfer to the hatcher. Forty seven isolates of bacteria of pathogenic importance including Pseudomonas aeruginosa (22 isolates), Escherichia coli (18) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (7) could be obtained. Antibiotic sensitivity testing of the isolates showed that chloramphenicol and gentamicin are the antibiotics of choice for egg dipping purposes to minimize infection of incubated eggs in hatcheries in this region.enVeterinary ScienceArticle