Prevalence and Multidrug Resistant Pattern of Salmonella Isolated from Wild Birds

Abstract

Salmonellosis is one of the most common, zoonotic diseases and presence of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella in wild birds is a global public health threats. Throughout the last decade, multi-drug resistance of Salmonella spp. has increased, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate prevalence of Salmonella spp. and antimicrobial resistance pattern against Salmonella spp. from two species of wild birds such as Crow and Asian pied starling. Samples were collected from cloacal swabs of Crows (Corvus splendens) and Asian pied starling (Gracupica contra) for isolating Salmonella spp. (bacteriological culture methods) followed by antimicrobial susceptibility testing (disk diffusion method) against Salmonella spp. isolates during the period March to December, 2014. The prevalence of Salmonella in Asian pied starling and Crows were (67%) and (65%), respectively. Within the category of samples from different species, the variation in prevalence were not varied significantly (p>0.05). Isolated Salmonella spp. was tested for resistance to six different antimicrobial agents. Among six antimicrobial tested 100% resistance were found to Penicillin, Oxacillin and Clindamycin followed by Erythromycin (50-93%), Kanamycin (7-20%) and Cephalothin (30-67%) from both species of birds. Kanamycin remained sensitive in (70-73%), Cephalothin (26-70%) and Erythromycin appeared to be (0-30%) sensitive against Salmonella spp. isolates. Salmonella isolates was multidrug resistant up to three of the six antimicrobials tested. The high resistance of Penicillin, Oxacillin and Clindamycin to salmonella spp. of crow and Asian pied starling of present study might be due to indiscriminate use of these antibiotics to human as well as in livestock and poultry. In addition, sometimes farmers select drugs by their own or rely on neighbor experienced farmers or non-veterinarians and these mal-practices may not always ensure proper drugs doses, frequency of drug administration and complete course of drug treatment. In conclusion, it can be said that the rational use of antibiotics need to be adopt in treatment of disease for livestock, poultry and human of Bangladesh to prevent the emergence of drug resistance to Salmonella spp.