Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance of Salmonella Species Isolated from Chicken Meat in Riyadh City

The global emergence of antimicrobial resistance has become a pre-eminent concern in medicine, veterinary medicine and public health. Antimicrobial resistance is of particular concern because the problem is widespread, the causative factors are uncontrolled, and national strategies to address the problem had been lacked. The persisting burden of infectious diseases makes elimination of antibiotic use unethical, but dramatic overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents around the world must be reduced to extend the useful lifetimes of these drugs. Salmonella is one of the most prevalent causes of foodborne illness worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Salmonella species in chicken meat in Riyadh city using standard culture method (ISO 6579: 2002) and confirm the results using VITEK 2 COMPACT and the protein finger print of Salmonella using MALDI TOF BIOTYPER then determine the antimicrobial resistance of the isolated strains of Salmonella using the AST cards and VITEK 2 COMPACT. A total of 100 samples of chicken meat comprising of 30 raw chicken meat (whole carcasses), 30 chicken cuts , 20 chicken fillets , 10 chicken livers and 10 chicken kidneys were purchased from different slaughterhouses and supermarkets in Riyadh city. The obtained results indicated that the total number of positive samples of raw chicken meat for Salmonella species was 13 out of 30 examined samples representing 43.33%, 18 out of 30 examined chicken cuts representing 60%, 16 out of 20 examined chicken fillets representing 80%, 7 out of 10 examined chicken livers representing 70% and 4 out of 10 examined chicken kidneys representing 40%. The Salmonella isolates were resistant to Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Gentamicin, Trimethoprim/ Sulfamethaxazole , Minocycline, Ampicillin / Sulbactam , Tobramycin and Aztreonam. The present study indicates high prevalence of Salmonella in raw chicken meat due to poor hygienic practices and therefore emphasizes the need for adopting these hygienic practices.