Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Antimicrobial resistance (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">AMR</jats:styled-content>) in a wide range of infectious agents is a growing public health threat. Birds of prey are considered indicators of the presence of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">AMR</jats:styled-content> bacteria in their ecosystem because of their predatory behaviour. Only few data are reported in the literature on <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">AMR</jats:styled-content> strains isolated from animals housed in zoos and none about <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">AMR</jats:styled-content> in raptors housed in zoological gardens. This study investigated the antibiotic sensitivity profile of the isolates obtained from the conjunctival and cloacal bacterial flora of 14 healthy birds of prey, 6 <jats:italic>Accipitriformes</jats:italic>, 3 <jats:italic>Falconiformes</jats:italic> and 5 <jats:italic>Strigiformes</jats:italic>, housed in an Italian zoological garden. <jats:italic>Staphylococcus</jats:italic> spp. was isolated from 50% of the conjunctival swabs, with <jats:italic>S. xylosus</jats:italic> as the most common species. From cloacal swabs, <jats:italic>Escherichia coli</jats:italic> was cultured from all animals, while <jats:italic>Klebsiella</jats:italic> spp. and <jats:italic>Proteus</jats:italic> spp. were isolated from a smaller number of birds. Worthy of note is the isolation of <jats:italic>Escherichia fergusonii</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Serratia odorifera</jats:italic>, rarely isolated from raptors. Staphylococci were also isolated. All the isolates were multidrug resistant (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">MDR</jats:styled-content>). To the author's knowledge, this is the first report regarding the presence of MDR strains within raptors housed in a zoological garden. Since resistance genes can be transferred to other pathogenic bacteria, this represents a potential hazard for the emergence of new MDR pathogens. In conclusion, the obtained data could be useful for <jats:italic>ex‐situ</jats:italic> conservation programmes aimed to preserve the health of the endangered species housed in a zoo.</jats:p>