Cross Sectional Study on Non-typhoidal Salmonella in Freshly Slaughtered Goat Samples From Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India

Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS), is a leading cause of food borne infections of zoonotic significance, for which different food animals are considered reservoir and source of infection. Goats are mostly slaughtered at small slaughterhouses with poor hygienic conditions making chevon a likely transmission source for salmonellosis.

This cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of NTS in goats from Rewa city of Madhya Pradesh and surrounding areas. A total of 240 samples from freshly slaughtered goat carcasses, including meat (n=120) and intestinal content (n=120) were collected from different butcher shops and processed for isolation and identification of Salmonellae by culture, biochemical methods and molecular methods.

A total of 10.43% prevalence of Salmonella (only one serotype S. typhimurium) was found including 14.17% positivity in meat and 6.67% in intestinal content of sampled goats. AMR pattern indicated that the 68% of isolated Salmonella were Multi Drug Resistant and showed high resistance towards different antibiotics including third generation cephalosporins. Invasive and virulence markers like invA and spiA were present in all the isolates but spvR and spvC were not detected. Significant correlation was detected between phenotypic and genotypic (blaTEM and ampC gene) drug resistance pattern. A significant Pearson square correlation (0.468) (p<0.0001) was found between the occurrence of Salmonella in intestinal content and meat but percent positivity of cross contaminated meat was also found very high (52.94%).