Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella isolated from retail raw turkey, ostrich and partridge meat in Iran.

The objective of this study was to determine the Salmonella prevalence, the serotypes involved and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Salmonella isolates recovered from retail raw turkey, ostrich, and partridge meat in Esfahan, Iran. A total of 249 samples of turkey, ostrich, and partridge meat were purchased from 8 randomly selected retail outlets from April 2006 to July 2007. All samples were evaluated for the presence of Salmonella, serotyped and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. There was an overall Salmonella prevalence of 6.8%. The prevalence of Salmonella was statistically significantly higher in turkey meat (9.7%) than in ostrich meat (4.6%) (P ≤ 0.05). No Salmonella was isolated from partridge meat samples. Salmonella isolates recovered from turkey and ostrich meat samples were of 4 different serotypes including Salmonella enterica ser. Typhimurium, Salmonella enterica ser. Enteritidis, Salmonella enterica ser. Agona, and Salmonella enterica ser. Paratyphi B. The susceptibility of the 17 isolated strains to 12 antimicrobial drugs was determined using the disk diffusion method. Resistance to nalidixic acid was the most common finding (58.8%), followed by resistance to tetracycline (41.2%), streptomycin (29.4%), trimethoprim (23.5%), chloramphenicol (11.8%), and ciprofloxacin (5.9%). Salmonella isolates recovered from ostrich meat samples were susceptible to all 12 antimicrobial agents. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the prevalence of Salmonella in partridge meat and first report of the isolation of Salmonella spp. from retail raw turkey and ostrich meat in Iran.