Incidence of Salmonella from poultry products and their susceptibility to antimicrobial agents

The incidence of Salmonella in 60 samples of poultry products of national origin available for consumers obtained from two local butcher shops and one canteen of the city of Porto and the susceptibility to antimicrobial agents allowed for human or animal therapy were evaluated. The results show that poultry samples are frequently contaminated with Salmonella (60%), belonging to 10 different serotypes. Salmonella enteritidis and S. hadar were the most prevalent serotypes. In addition, a high number (75%) of the Salmonella isolates was resistant to one or more antimicrobial agents and eight different resistance profiles were recorded. Resistance to nalidixic acid and enrofloxacin was demonstrated for 50% of the isolates and the occurrence of resistant and multiresistant S. enteritidis isolates were less frequent than for S. hadar. This study suggests a high incidence of Salmonella on Portuguese poultry products and shows that they could be a potential vehicle of resistant Salmonella foodborne infections. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.