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Bacterial Culture Was Positive in 51.7% of Tissue Samples from Feral Pigeons in Egypt

Feral pigeon in flight
Research · Disease, parasites & microbiology

A study of free-living feral pigeons near Ismailia in Egypt found bacterial growth in 124 of 240 tissue samples taken from clinically healthy birds. The pigeons were the domestic-derived form of rock dove (Columba livia), and the researchers examined liver, lung and intestinal tissue to investigate bacterial infections and associated tissue changes.

The study, first published on 27 February 2026 in Veterinary Medicine and Science, used 80 pigeons collected from non-urban areas around Ismailia between October 2022 and July 2023. None showed abnormal clinical signs during 72 hours of observation before examination.

More than Half of the Tissue Samples Yielded Bacteria

Bacterial culture was positive in 124 of the 240 tissue samples, or 51.7%. Escherichia coli was the dominant isolate, accounting for 87 of the positive samples. The researchers also isolated Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Proteus, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas.

The birds appeared healthy externally, but post-mortem and microscopic examination revealed a range of lesions in different organs. Congestion and focal abnormalities were seen in some lungs and livers, and histological changes were recorded in several tissues. The study therefore documented bacterial isolates alongside tissue pathology in birds that had shown no obvious clinical illness.

Microscopic tissue sections showing histopathological lesions in feral pigeons
Examples of histopathological changes documented in tissues from the examined pigeons. Fotouh et al. (2026), Veterinary Medicine and Science, CC BY 4.0.

The authors investigated feral pigeons because the birds move between natural, agricultural and human-modified environments and may carry bacteria relevant to poultry, livestock and people. They conclude that clinically healthy pigeons can harbour bacterial pathogens of veterinary and zoonotic interest and may contribute to their transmission around farms and settlements.

Sources and image credit

  1. Fotouh, A., Elbarbary, N. K., Elshafae, S., El-Hawary, S. F., Al-Shahari, E. A., Alharbi, H. M., Aljumaa, M. A., Almasoudi, S. H., Ahmed, A. E., Diab, M. S., Mahmoud, M. A., & Zaki, R. S. (2026). Unlocking the pathological insights of the bacterial infections of free-living pigeons. Veterinary Medicine and Science, 12(2), e70866. https://doi.org/10.1002/vms3.70866Primary peer-reviewed open-access study first published 27 February 2026. Eighty clinically healthy free-living feral pigeons collected near Ismailia, Egypt, were examined. Of 240 liver, lung and intestinal tissue samples, 124 (51.7%) were culture-positive; 87 of the positive samples yielded Escherichia coli. The article is CC BY 4.0.

Image: Alexis Lours / Wikimedia Commons — feral pigeon (Columba livia) in flight in Paris, France, photographed 6 April 2022; representative species image, not a bird from the Egyptian study · CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · Source

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