Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium isolated from retail chicken meat in Wasit markets, Iraq

Abstract

Background and Aim: Food poisoning caused by Salmonella enterica serovars is the most common type of foodborne illness. Tainted chicken meat is a major vector for spreading these serovars throughout the food supply chain. Salmonella isolates that developed resistance to commonly used antimicrobials pose a noteworthy risk to public health, yet there has been a lack of data on this issue in Iraq. Therefore, it is crucial to address these serious public health challenges with an adequate database on the occurrence and antibiotic resistance of these serovars. This study aimed to determine the frequency of occurrence of Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium (S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and prevalence of multidrug resistance among S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium isolated from poultry meat collected in Wasit Province in Iraq. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 raw and frozen poultry meat samples were gathered from retail markets in various locales across the Wasit Governorate in Iraq. Salmonella spp. were successfully cultured and identified using the technique recommended by ISO 6579:2002, with minor modifications. The multiplex polymerase chain reaction approach was used to confirm Salmonella spp. (S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium). A disk diffusion test was performed to determine the susceptibility to particular antimicrobial agents, and 12 different antimicrobial agents were evaluated. Results: Only 19 of the 150 (12.7%) samples tested positive for Salmonella (16% and 11% were isolated from raw and frozen chicken meat, respectively). S. Enteritidis accounted for 63.2%, whereas S. Typhimurium accounted for 36.8%. Nalidixic acid resistance was the most common (73.7%), followed by sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (63.2%) and tetracycline (63.2%), but gentamicin and ciprofloxacin (up to 15.8%) only had modest resistance. Antibiogram of S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium yield 13 antibiotypes. Among the 19 Salmonella isolates, 12 of 19 (63.2%) established resistance to no less than three categories of antimicrobials. Conclusion: This study highlighted the necessity of limiting the utilization of antibiotics in animal production by providing vital information regarding the frequency and AMR of Salmonella at markets in Wasit Province. Therefore, risk assessment models could use these data to lessen the amount of Salmonella passed on to humans in Iraq from chicken meat. Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, chicken, food poisoning, serovars.

Occurrence, antimicrobial resistance, and molecular characterization of Salmonella enterica from chicken products and human in Wasit Governorate of Iraq

“…These processes allow for the cross-contamination of healthy and clean birds with diseased ones or contaminated carcasses, and then with human beings. Additionally, the lack of veterinary oversight could result in the slaughter of sick chickens, then spread the infections ( Kanaan, 2023 ). Associations between the detection of S. enterica and different sources of sample with additional factors were examined by using an exact test and a p -value <0.05 considered significant.…”

“…These bacteria characterized by rod-shaped, Gram-negative, facultative anaerobes, motile, belong to the family of Enterobacteriaceae ( Crump et al , 2015 ; Kanaan, 2023 ). Many disease syndromes are caused by different serovars of S. enterica ranging from Typhoid fever (Enteric or Systemic) which is caused by Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi A; to gastroenteritis (Intestinal or Diarrheal) caused by non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) ( Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella enteritidis ); and the severity of infection was varies depending on the type of the host ( Feasey et al , 2012 ; Jaslow et al , 2018 ; Hanoun and Al-Samrraae, 2019 ).…”