Characterization of the Oral Microbiota of Captive Viperid Snakes in Panama: Implications for Snakebite-Associated Wound Infections

Snakebite envenoming is a major neglected public health problem in Panama, yet culture-independent data on the oral microbiota of medically important viperid snakes remain limited. We characterized the oral microbiota of four captive species native to Panama (Bothrops asper, Bothriechis nigroviridis, Cerrophidion sasai, and Porthidium lansbergii) using forward-read analysis of 16S rRNA V3–V4 amplicons and compositional methods. Among 68 retained oral samples, communities were dominated by Pseudomonadota, Bacillota, Actinomycetota, and Bacteroidota. Observed ASV richness differed among species (Kruskal–Wallis H = 21.87, p < 0.001), whereas no significant differences were detected in Shannon diversity or Pielou’s evenness. Richness differences require caution because sequenced negative controls were unavailable and no independent depth-aware sensitivity analysis was performed. Community composition was significantly associated with host species (PERMANOVA R2 = 0.197, p = 0.001), although PERMDISP detected heterogeneous within-group dispersion (p = 0.005), requiring cautious interpretation. ANCOM-BC2 identified 21 differentially abundant genera, including Providencia, Morganella, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, and Staphylococcus, with high relative abundance of Mycoplasma in a subset of P. lansbergii samples. These findings provide a culture-independent taxonomic baseline for future culture-based, antimicrobial-susceptibility, and paired snake-oral/human-wound investigations in Panama.