Incidence of Salmonella Infantis in poultry meat and products and the resistance of isolates to antimicrobials

Abstract

Globalisation, climate change, changes in eating habits and the food industry, modern animal husbandry and market demands often have a negative impact on quality assurance, food safety and animal health. After the eradication of some zoonotic diseases that previously often jeopardized the human population, today in developed countries, the focus is mainly on the control of zoonoses transmitted by food. Salmonella is one of the most common pathogens that can be transmitted from animals to humans, and its reservoirs are poultry, cattle and pigs, so one transmission route to humans is from contaminated food of animal origin. Multidrug-resistant isolates of Salmonella, which can transfer their resistance genes to other microorganisms, are considered a serious threat to public health. Control of Salmonella primarily depends on a good monitoring system and knowledge of the presence of serovars and strains in an epizootiological area. During the first nine months of 2016, 1321 samples of poultry meat and products were examined, among which 108 harboured Salmonella. Altogether, 29 of the 108 isolates (26.85%) were Salmonella Infantis. For all 29 S. Infantis isolates, antimicrobial resistance was tested by the disc diffusion method. The isolates showed 100% resistance to amoxicillin, and nalidixic acid.