Serotypes, Virulence and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Salmonella Spp. Strains, Isolated from Poultry Meat Cutting Parts in Greater Tunis (Tunisia)

Serotypes, Virulence and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Salmonella Spp. Strains, Isolated from Poultry Meat Cutting Parts in Greater Tunis (Tunisia)

This study was conducted to estimate the infection rate, antibiotic susceptibility and serotype distribution and virulence genes of Salmonella in poultry meat cutting parts in Greater Tunis, Tunisia. In four years (2012-2015), 433 samples were sent to Food Microbiology Laboratory of the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi thabet. The poultry meat cutting parts contamination prevalence by Salmonella spp. was 6.7% (29/433). The 29 isolates were positive to PCR using Salmonella specific primers (Figure 1). This rate varies from 3.1% (7/226) for skinless poultry meat cutting parts to 10.6% (22/207) for skin poultry meat cutting parts (p<0.001). A total number of 7 serotypes were identified, namely S. Kentucky (9/29), S. Anatum (7/29), S. Zanzibar (6/29), S. Newport (3/29), S. Minnesota (2/29), S. Amsterdam (1/29) and S. Corvallis (1/29) (p<0.05) (Table 1). Salmonella strains (29) were positive for invasion gene invA and negative for the virulence genes spvC and h-li (Table 1, Figure 1). All of the strains were resistant to at least one of the antibiotics. Multiresistance concerned 17/29 of the strains, including Amoxicillin (10/29), Tetracycline (8/29), Gentamicin (6/29), and Kanamycin (4/29). All S. Kentucky strains were resistant to Ciprofloxacin. Furthermore, all strains were sensitive to the association (Amoxicillin + Clavulanic acid), Cefoxitin and Ceftazidime (Table 1).