Antimicrobial resistance of 100 Salmonella strains isolated from Gallus gallus in 4 wilayas of Algeria

This study aims at identifying serotypes and surveying the antimicrobial resistance and plasmid support of resistance of 100 Salmonella strains, which were isolated from 96 out of 506 (18.97%) samples taken from different production farms in the wilayas (i.e., Algerian states) of Tizi-Ouzou, Bouira, Bejaïa, and Boumerdes in 2007. The highest percentage of Salmonella (48%) was recorded in Bouira. Thirteen serotypes were identified among the 100 Salmonella strains used in this study. The most prevalent ones were Salmonella Heidelberg (24%), Salmonella Enteritidis (20%), Salmonella Albany (16%), and Salmonella Typhimurium (9%). The strains showed resistance to 8 of the 34 antibiotics tested. Fifty-three percent of strains were resistant to at least one antibiotic, among which 15.09% were multiresistant. The most frequently observed resistance was to quinolones (58.49%), with a contribution of 94.74% of Salmonella Heidelberg resistant strains. The plasmid transfer performed on 53 strains showed that only 11 exhibited one or more markers of resistance, the most frequent being ampicillin, followed by tetracycline, then cotrimoxazole, sulphonamides, and kanamycin, in that order. The tetracycline characteristics were present in 72.72% of transconjugants, those of the β-lactams and sulphonamides in 27.27% each and those of the aminosides in 9.09%. The incompatibility groups of plasmids belong to the F1me and Com1 classes, and the molecular weight of the plasmid DNA was greater than 100 kb. The phenotypic and genotypic results indicate a clonal dissemination in the Gallus gallus species in this particular study; this phenomenon could generate resistant bacteria and transferable genes of resistance to humans.