Abstract

Salmonella is a globally widespread food-borne pathogen having major impact on public health. Salmonellosis is an infection with bacteria called Salmonella. Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 h after infection. This study was designed to isolate and identify Salmonella spp. from cloacal swabs of apparently healthy broiler chickens in Bangladesh. Salmonella was characterized culturally, biochemically and also via PCR method. Among 50 isolates, 16 were found to be positive for Salmonella. PCR using 16S rRNA gene primers produced a 496 bp band indicating positive result for Salmonella spp. Antibiotic sensitivity test using six commonly used antibiotics in Bangladesh named colistin sulphate, erythromycin, cloxacillin, ciprofloxacin, neomycin and amoxicillin demonstrated that 5 (31.25%) strains were resistant towards ciprofloxacin. Fourteen (87.5%) isolates were resistant to amoxicillin, while fourteen (87.5%) were found intermediate towards neomycin. The study revealed that, healthy broiler chicken sold at local markets of Bangladesh transmit drug resistant Salmonella to the environment, therefore, use of antibiotics can be monitored in food producing animals since drug resistance could be a major public health problem in developing countries like Bangladesh.

Key words: Antibiogram, Salmonellosis, PCR, broiler chicken, drug resistance.

Abbreviation

MIU, Motility indole urea; I, indole; MR, methyl red; VP, Voges-Proskauer; MHA, Mueller-Hinton agar.