Prevalence of Salmonella in broiler chickens in Kagoshima, Japan in 2009 to 2012 and the relationship between serovars changing and antimicrobial resistance

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine the prevalence, serovars, and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella isolates from broiler chickens in Kagoshima, Japan. A total of 192 flocks and 3071 samples were collected from broiler chickens at local farms in Kagoshima, Japan from 2009 to 2012. RESULT: Among the tested farms, 49.0% of flocks were positive for Salmonella, and 243 isolates were obtained from 3071 cecal samples (7.9%). All the Salmonella isolates were one of three serovars: S. Infantis (57.6%); (140/243), S. Manhattan (40.3%; 98/243 and S. Schwarzengrund (2.1%; 5/243). The proportion of S. Infantis isolates decreased from 66.0% in 2009 to 50.0% in 2011 but increased to 57.6% in 2012, while the proportion of S. Manhattan isolates significantly increased from 26.4 to 50% from 2009 to 2011, and decreased moderately to 40.9% in 2012. Most of the recovered Salmonella isolates were resistant to three antimicrobials, i.e., streptomycin (95.1%), sulfamethoxazole (91.0%) and oxytetracycline (91.4%). In contrast, all Salmonella strains were susceptible to chloramphenicol. Comparison of this study to previous studies of the antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella isolates showed that: the percentage of antibiotic-resistance isolates increased dramatically for two antibiotics, ampicillin (from 22.4 to 55.1%) and cefotaxime (from 9.1 to 52.7%). In contrast, the percentage of ofloxacin-resistant isolates decreased across the three survey periods, from 20.8% in 2004–2006 to 1.6% in the present study period (2009–2012). In addition, S. Infantis exhibited a variety of resistance to antimicrobials examined from sensitive to resistance to eight antimicrobials. Multidrug resistance to more than 6 six antimicrobials was detected in 113 (46.5%) of the isolates, and most of them were S. Manhattan. CONCLUSIONS: There was a marked change in the serovars and antimicrobial resistance profiles of the Salmonella isolates in this study compared to those in previous studies. The percentage of S. Manhattan isolates increased as did the percentages of ampicillin- and cefotaxime-resistant isolates.