Abstract
BackgroundProduction and wild animals are major sources of human salmonellosis and animals raised for food also play an important role in transmission of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella strains to humans. Furthermore, in sub-Saharan Africa non-typhoidal Salmonella serotypes are common bloodstream isolates in febrile patients. Yet, little is known about the environmental reservoirs and predominant modes of transmission of these pathogens. The purpose of this study was to discover potential sources and distribution vehicles of Salmonella by isolating strains from apparently healthy slaughtered food animals and wild hedgehogs and by determining the genetic relatedness between the strains and human isolates. For this purpose, 729 feces samples from apparently healthy slaughtered cattle (n = 304), poultry (n = 350), swine (n = 50) and hedgehogs (n = 25) were examined for the presence of Salmonella enterica in Burkina Faso. The isolates were characterized by serotyping, antimicrobial-susceptibility testing, phage typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with XbaI and BlnI restriction enzymes.ResultsOf the 729 feces samples, 383 (53%) contained Salmonella, representing a total of 81 different serotypes. Salmonella was present in 52% of the cattle, 55% of the poultry, 16% of the swine and 96% of the hedgehog feces samples. Antimicrobial resistance was detected in 14% of the isolates. S. Typhimurium isolates from poultry and humans (obtained from a previous study) were multiresistant to the same antimicrobials (ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfonamides and trimethoprim), had the same phage type DT 56 and were closely related in PFGE. S. Muenster isolates from hedgehogs had similar PFGE patterns as the domestic animals.ConclusionsBased on our results it seems that production and wild animals can share the same Salmonella serotypes and potentially transmit some of them to humans. As the humans and animals often live in close vicinity in Africa and the hygiene control of the meat retail chain is defective, high Salmonella carriage rates of the animals can pose a major public health risk in Burkina Faso. This underlines the necessity for a joint and coordinated surveillance and monitoring programs for salmonellosis in Africa.
Highlights
Production and wild animals are major sources of human salmonellosis and animals raised for food play an important role in transmission of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella strains to humans
Of the 383 isolates, 382 belonged to S. enterica ssp. enterica and one was S. enterica ssp. salamae. 364 of the S. enterica ssp. enterica isolates could be serotyped in detail, while for 18 isolates only the Salmonella group could be assigned. 60 different serotypes were found from the cattle, 41 from the chicken, 5 from the swine and 8 from the hedgehog feces
We detected high prevalence of Salmonella enterica ssp. enterica in the feces of the production animals slaughtered for human consumption in Burkina Faso
Summary
Production and wild animals are major sources of human salmonellosis and animals raised for food play an important role in transmission of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella strains to humans. The purpose of this study was to discover potential sources and distribution vehicles of Salmonella by isolating strains from apparently healthy slaughtered food animals and wild hedgehogs and by determining the genetic relatedness between the strains and human isolates. Salmonella is one of the major zoonotic foodborne pathogens worldwide It can cause a variety of clinical manifestations from mild gastroenteritis to bacteremia and typhoid fever. Multiresistant Salmonella may acquire their resistance genes from microbiota of production animals before being transmitted to humans through food chain [11,12]
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