Septicaemia in emerald monitors (Varanus prasinus Schlegel 1839) caused by Streptococcus agalactiae acquired from mice.

The present study was performed to investigate both the identity and the source of the bacteria responsible for a fatal septicaemia observed in a group of three subadult emerald monitors (Varanus prasinus Schlegel 1839). The emerald monitors were necropsied and examined by light microscopy, including immunohistology, and by electron microscopy. Tissue samples were additionally submitted for bacteriological, virological and parasitological examinations. The virological and parasitological results were noncontributory, whereas the bacteriological investigation resulted in the isolation of gram-positive cocci which were characterized biochemically and serologically and by molecular analysis. The death of the emerald monitors was caused by a partially leukocyte-associated septicaemic infection with streptococci of serological group B of serotype V. Phenotypically and genotypically identical group B streptococci were isolated from the intestine of subadult mice, obtained from the feed used for the monitors. The genotypical characterization included an identical DNA fingerprint of strains of both origins, indicating the epidemiological relation between the feeding mice and the infections of the monitors.