Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility profiling of salmonella isolated from poultry products sold in Sokoto metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

The emergence of multidrug-resistant Salmonella in poultry meat and products presents a serious global public health problem. A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the isolation rate of Salmonella species in eggs and chicken meat randomly sampled from some selected retail outlets in Sokoto metropolis, and to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of the isolates. Bacteriological culture and biochemical characterization, followed by the antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method were employed. Out of the 300 samples comprising 150 eggs, and 150 chicken meat samples analyzed, 20 (13.3 %) were positive for Salmonella among chicken meat, while 11 (7.33 %) were positive among the egg samples. Based on the sampling locations, the frequency of isolation of Salmonella was highest in Sokoto south and Wamakko areas with 17.5 % each for the chicken meat, while Sokoto south area with 10.0 % had the highest among the egg samples. The results of the antimicrobial susceptibility test showed 15 isolates (75 %) for chicken meat being 93.3 %, 86.7 %, 60.0 % and 60.0 % resistant to penicillin, oxytetracycline, Sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim, and erythromycin respectively, while all 11 (100 %) isolates from egg swab culture showed resistance to one or more of the antimicrobials tested. However, a high proportion of isolates were susceptible to neomycin (93.3 %). The Salmonella isolates also exhibited multidrug-resistance against four of the antimicrobials tested that included erythromycins, Sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim, penicillin, and oxytetracycline. It could be suggested that the rational use of antibiotics needs to be adopted in commercial poultry farming system of Sokoto to curtail the spread of these drug-resistant pathogens and its concomitant hazard to human health.