Summary The natural habitats and potential reservoirs of the nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii are poorly defined. Here, we put forth and tested the hypothesis of avian reservoirs of A . baumannii . We screened tracheal and rectal swab samples from livestock (chicken, geese) and wild birds (white stork nestlings) and isolated A . baumannii from 3% of sampled chicken ( n = 220), 8% of geese ( n = 40) and 25% of white...