Across-sectional study was conducted on apparently healthy cattle, personnel and equipments at abattoir and commercial dairy farms in Bishoftu, Ethiopia from December 2013 to May 2014. The objectives were to isolate and identify Salmonella from slaughtered cattle, lactating cows, personnel and equipments at abattoir and farms; and to assess the in-vitro antimicrobials susceptibility of isolates. A total of 222 samples containing carcass swab, cecal content, pooled slaughterhouse workers’ hand swab, pooled knives’ swab, pooled carcass hanging materials’ swab, pooled buckets’ swab, pooled milkers’ hand swab, tank milk, tank swab, udder milk and feces were purposively collected. Then, samples were examined for the presence of Salmonella according to standard techniques. Salmonella was isolated from all samples except from pooled knives’ swab, pooled buckets’ swab, cecal content, and tank milk samples. However, Salmonella isolation frequency was no significantly different (P>0.05) among the sample types. Thirteen of the isolates were resistant to one or more antimicrobials tested; and 60% (9/15), 46.67% (7/15), 46.67% (7/15), and 40% (6/15) of isolates showed resistance against streptomycin, ampicillin, kanamycin and nalidixic acid, respectively. None of the isolates showed resistance to gentamycin and ciprofloxacin. Moreover, 92.31% (12/13) of the resistant isolates showed multiple antimicrobials resistance. The study indicated that multiple antimicrobials resistant Salmonella can be isolated from abattoir and dairy, and this signifies the public health importance of the organism.

Keywords: Abattoir, Antimicrobials resistance, Bishoftu, Commercial dairy farms, Ethiopia Salmonella