Prevalence of Salmonella in seafood collected from the local markets

Abstract

Salmonella is a serious food-borne pathogen which belongs to enterobacteriaceae family. All Salmonella groups other than Salmonella typhi and S. paratyphi refers to as NTS (Non-Typhiodal Salmonella) which causes diseases from mild gastroenteritis to life threatening cases and it is becoming a great public concern worldwide recently. Nearly 165 sea food samples from local markets of Cochin were screened for the Salmonella and it is found that the prevalence is 27.3 per cent . The 45 positive samples include many commercially important fishes, shellfishes and molluscs. All isolates were confirmed as positive by bio typing and by PCR targeting invA gene with 284 bp. Serotyping of these isolates confirmed the presence of various Non Typhiodal Salmonella strains like Salmonella typhimurium, S. salamae, S. urbana, etc. Some of the isolates were rough type which cannot be serotyped. Antibiogram profiling was performed against twenty antibiotics like imepenem, ciprofloxacin, tobramycin, moxifloxacin, ofloxacin, ceftazidine, levofloxacin, norfloxacin, cotrimoxazole, colistin, nalidixic acid, augmentin, cefoxitin, gatifloxacin, gentamycin, amikacin, aztreonam, ceftriazone, cefpodoxime, nitrofurantoin etc. The Salmonella isolates showed the resistance towards third generation cephalosporins, carbapenem and nitrofurantoin groups.