Antimicrobial Resistance and Genetic Diversity of Salmonella Serotypes Recovered from Edible Pork Offal from Korea

Although edible offal can be easily contaminated with foodborne bacteria and regarded as important transfers of antimicrobial resistance to humans, the characterization of bacteria from edible offal have not been researched sufficiently. This study is the first to focus on the molecular characterization of Salmonella isolated from edible pork offal. From a total of 52 Salmonella isolates from edible pork offal, 44 (80.7%) were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent and 24 (46.2%) exhibited multidrug resistance (MDR). All MDR Salmonella were also resistant to β-lactams and 12 (50.0%) of the isolates were positive for bla _{TEM-1}. Eleven (68.8%) of the 16 gentamicin-resistant isolates harbored the ant(2”)-I gene. Among 18 tetracycline-resistant isolates, tetA and tetB genes were found in 9 (50.0%) and 3 (16.7%) isolates, respectively. The sul1 gene was identified in 9 (81.8%) of 11 trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole-resistant isolates, and the cmlA gene was identified in only 2 (18.1%) among 11 chloramphenicol-resistant isolates. Eighteen (75.0%) of the 24 MDR Salmonella were identified as containing class 1 integrons, within which dfrA12-aadA2 (55.6%) was the most prevalent resistance gene cassettes. Twenty-one (87.5%) of the MDR isolates were also found to have the plasmid replicons. Replicon B/O (41.7%) was the most prevalent replicon types. These results suggest that edible pork offal can become a reservoir that not only harbors MDR Salmonella, but also contributes to their dissemination through cross-contamination processes.