Abstract
The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Salmonella in the pork production chain and to characterize Salmonella isolates. From 764 samples, 35 (4.6%) were positive for Salmonella spp., as determined by biochemical tests and the presence of the invA gene. From these, 2.6, 2.0, 8.8, and 8.0% corresponded to samples collected from farms, slaughterhouses, boning rooms and retail markets, respectively. Salmonella strains were classified into five serotypes and distributed as follows: S. Typhimurium in the pork production chain, S. Kentucky in farms and slaughterhouses, S. Brandenburg in slaughterhouses, S. Livingstone in farms and S. Agona in boning rooms and retail markets. Interestingly, the antimicrobial susceptibility testing indicated that all 35 Salmonella spp.-positive isolates were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent, and 30 were multidrug-resistant (MDR) and resistant to different classes of antibiotics. The enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) analysis showed clonal relatedness among strains isolated from farms, boning rooms and retail markets. The presence of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella in food poses a potential health hazard to consumers.
Highlights
Salmonella spp. are important zoonotic pathogens involved in human foodborne illness (Castagna et al, 2005; Sanchez-Maldonado et al, 2017)
Taking into account the hazard of consuming pork meat contaminated with Salmonella and the dissemination of MDR strains (Yang et al, 2017), the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, serotypes and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella strains isolated in the pork production chain, and to assess the possible genetic relationships among Salmonella isolates by ERIC-PCR
8.0% (7/87) of samples isolated from pork meat and minced meat ready for sale were positive for Salmonella spp
Summary
Salmonella spp. are important zoonotic pathogens involved in human foodborne illness (Castagna et al, 2005; Sanchez-Maldonado et al, 2017). Most cases of salmonellosis are associated with ingestion of contaminated food such as poultry, milk, beef, pork, eggs, fruits and vegetables (Favier et al, 2013). Contaminated pork meat may be responsible for up to 25% of this illness, being Salmonella Typhimurium the most common serotype isolated (Boyen et al, 2008; Kich et al, 2011). Salmonella infection in pigs is sub-clinical; shedding is intermittent for long periods and leading the infection in some farms (Baggesen, 2006). The prevalence of shedding may increase from farm to slaughter because pigs are exposed to a variety of potential stressors during transport, increasing the number
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