Salmonella spp. infection in imported 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults: a public health risk

Abstract

The occurrence of Salmonella in 750 birds was assessed. The samples included the internal organs (caecal pouches, yolk sac, liver, and lung) of imported 1-day-old chicks (n = 150), grandparent chicks (n = 150), breeder chicks (n = 150), ducklings (n = 150), and turkey poults (n = 150), and paper-lined boxes (n = 250). Salmonellae isolated from the internal organs and paper-lined box of 1-day-old chicks, ducklings, and poults were mostly evident from the paper-lined box followed by caecal samples. Imported 1-day-old grandparent flocks were Salmonella free. Although 23.3% of the imported breeder flocks were positive for Salmonella, the imported duckling flocks and day-old turkey poults exhibited 19.3% and 12.6%, respectively. The widest diversity in isolated salmonellae was from the 1-day-old chicks where Salmonella Newport, Salmonella Kentucky, Salmonella Enteritidis, Salmonella Shubra, Salmonella Saintpaul, and Salmonella Agona were isolated. On the other hand, two Salmonella serovars were isolated from the imported breeders, Salmonella Shubra and Salmonella Shipley, and from the imported ducklings, Salmonella Shubra and Salmonella Saintpaul. The three Salmonella serovars isolated from the imported day-old turkey poults were Salmonella Shubra, Salmonella Newport, and Salmonella Saintpaul. The high percentage and diversity of Salmonella isolation from the imported birds cause concern because of the zoonotic potential of this agent and its economical importance to the local commercial poultry breeding industry. From 80 samples investigated for Salmonella, the positivity of the standard microbiological technique method was 17.5% and of the polymerase chain reaction method (Salmonella-specific invA gene) was 22.5%. The concordance between the two methods was 90% (k = 0.850). Our results indicated that the polymerase chain reaction approach is better than culturing for detecting Salmonella in poultry samples when using the preenriched medium combinations used in this study.