Prevalence of Salmonellae and their resistance to antibiotics in slaughtered pigs in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Salmonella prevalence was assessed in 816 pigs from 15 herds which were slaughtered in ten slaughterhouses in South Moravia, Czech Republic, during June 2001-December 2002. No Salmonellae were isolated in pigs from eight herds in four slaughterhouses. Salmonella prevalence in pigs originating from the other seven herds ranged from 2.0% to 12.0%. The most frequent site of Salmonella isolation was caecum (2.45%). This finding is statistically significant (P0.01) as compared to those obtained in mesenteric lymph nodes (0.73%) and carcass swabs (0.12%). Salmonella were not found in samples from the environments (n=197). A total of 27 Salmonella isolates were classified into serotypes S. infantis (n=8), S. typhimurium (n=5), S. agona (n=4), S. kaapstad (n=4), S. derby (n=3), S. bredeney (n=2), and S. london (n=1). All five S. typhimurium DT 104 were resistant to the phenotype ACSSuT. Resistance genes blaPSE-1, floR, aadA2, sul1, and tetG were identified in all pentaresistant strains. One strain of S. derby was resistant to gentamicin, streptomycin and sulfonamides. The other Salmonella isolates were sensitive to all antibiotics tested.