Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella spp. isolated from fattening beef cattle at the slaughterhouse in Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella spp. isolated from fattening beef cattle at the slaughterhouse of Phon Yang Kham Livestock Breeding Cooperatives under the National Peacemaking Council in Sakon Nakhon Province. One hundred and twenty samples of bovine cecal contents were collected during November, 2014 – July, 2015 and isolated for Salmonella using ISO6579:2002/AMD 1:2007 standard protocol. It was found that the prevalence of Salmonella was 0.83% (1 out of 120 samples). Then, the isolated Salmonella was submitted to reference laboratory for serovar identification. The result suggested that it was Salmonella Brunei, serogroup C. Additionally, the antimicrobial susceptibility of the collected Salmonella to 11 antibiotics including ampicillin, cefotaxime, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, penicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim was examined by using disk diffusion test. The result showed that this Salmonella resisted to ampicillin and penicillin. Although Salmonella may not pose a major problem in current fattening beef cattle production, high precaution is needed when ampicillin and penicillin are to be prescribed in case of Salmonella infection in fattening beef cattle production.