Prevalence, virulence and antibiotic susceptibility of Salmonella spp. strains, isolated from beef in Greater Tunis (Tunisia)

• Salmonella infection is higher in culled cows (14/100) and heifers (3/100) than in bulls (0/100).
• S. Montevideo was most the frequently isolated serovar (8/17), with no seasonality.
• Multidrug-resistance was demonstrated in 14/17 Salmonella beef meat isolates.
• All 17 isolates harbored the invasion gene invA, but none the spvC virulence gene.

The aim of this work was to investigate the presence of Salmonella spp. in 300 beef meat samples collected from cattle carcasses of different categories (young bulls, culled heifers and culled cows). The detection of Salmonella spp. was performed by the alternative VIDAS Easy Salmonella technique and confirmed by PCR using Salmonella specific primers. Salmonella serotypes were determined by slide agglutination tests. The resistance to 12 antibiotics was determined by the diffusion method on Mueller-Hinton agar antibiotic discs. The overall contamination rate of beef by Salmonella spp. was 5.7% (17/300). This rate varied from naught (0/100) in bulls' meat to 14% (14/100) in culled cows' meat (p < 0.001). The prevalence of Salmonella spp. was higher in summer and in cattle with digestive disorders: chronic gastroenteritis (6/17), traumatic peritonitis (3/17) and intestinal obstruction (2/17) (p < 0.0001). Of the 17 Salmonella isolates, 6 serotypes were identified, namely Salmonella Montevideo (8/17), Salmonella Anatum (3/17), Salmonella Minnesota (2/17), Salmonella Amsterdam (2/17), Salmonella Kentucky (1/17) and Salmonella Brandenburg (1/17) (p < 0.05). Unlike other serotypes, S. Montevideo was present during the whole year except winter. Almost all of the strains (16/17) were resistant to at least one of the 12 tested antibiotics. Multidrug-resistance concerned 14/17 of the strains, including Amoxicillin (13/17), Tetracycline (12/17), Streptomycin (10/17) and Nalidixic acid (6/17). All the strains were sensitive to the association (Amoxicillin + Clavulanic acid), Cefoxitin and Ceftazidime. In addition, our study showed that all Salmonella strains (17) were positive for invasion gene invA and negative for the virulence gene spvC. Only one isolate (S. Kentucky) harbored the h-li virulence gene.