Salmonella serovar spectrum associated with reptiles in Poland

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of Salmonella isolates from a wide variety of reptiles in Poland. A total of 374 faecal samples from chelonians, lizards and snakes were collected between 2009 and 2012. The nested, two-step PCR and multiplex PCR were performed to access the incidence and to characterize Salmonella isolates. Salmonella strains were found in 122 of 374 samples (32.6%). Among the different reptilian species, Salmonella strains were found in 58 samples from lizards (38.9%), 31 samples from snakes (28.7%) and 33 samples from chelonians (28.2%). Of the total of 122 strains, 72 belonged to the species Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, 20 to the species S. enterica subs. salamae or S. enterica subs. houtanae. The incidence of S. enterica subs. diarizonae and S. enterica subs. indica was low, constituting less than 3.5% of the examined population. The findings show that reptiles can be considered as a reservoir for Salmonella and hence could pose a zoonotic hazard. In addition, multiplex PCR assay is a rapid, specific and easy-to-perform method and might be applied for rapid screening of large numbers of Salmonella samples.

Prevalence and characteristics of Salmonella species isolated from captive reptiles in the Czech Republic

“…prevalence was observed in lizards (25.6%), followed by snakes (17.6%) and chelonians (8%; Table 1). The prevalence rates in these groups of reptiles are consistent with the findings of other authors (De Sa and Solari 2001;Piasecki et al 2014;Lukac et al 2015). The increased diagnostic yield could be affected by the number of lizards as they constituted the largest group in this study (86/153), and many of them were examined repeatedly.…”

“…of about 19% in the studied reptiles. Available literature sources have reported varying levels of prevalence, namely, 54.1% in Germany and Austria (Geue and Loschner 2002), 32.6% in Poland (Piasecki et al 2014), 49% in Sweden (Wikstrom et al 2014), 13% in Croatia (Lukac et al 2015), 30.9% in Taiwan (Chen et al 2010) and 13.6% in Italy (Bertelloni et al 2016). Our results did not differ significantly from those obtained in other countries.…”

“…RAS cases have been reported to be associated with young age and a higher rate of hospitalisation (Murphy and Oshin 2015). The growing popularity of keeping reptiles as pets may be contributing to an increase in the number of such cases (Piasecki et al 2014).…”

Dissemination of Zoonotic Antibiotic Resistant Serotypes of Salmonella by Caspian Pond Turtles, Golestan and Mazandaran Provinces, Iran

“…enterica that was detected with 35.1% frequency in Caspian pond turtles, was found by other investigators to be predominant serotype, too. 15,28,29 As difference in the prevalence of Salmonella colonization can be seen in animals across different geographical locations, serovars identified in the present study could not be reasonably compared with data from other countries. It seems that serotype dominancy depends on different factors such as the region and whole reservoir of Salmonella in each ecosystem.…”

“…28 Another survey conducted in 1999 in Poland which incorporated over 300 000 animals and food samples showed that the most common serovar of Salmonella was S. enteritidis. 29 Salmonella enterica subsp.…”