Prevalence of Salmonella in chicken eggs collected from poultry farms and marketing channels and their antimicrobial resistance

An investigation was carried out to study the dynamics of Salmonella occurrence in chicken eggs during production at farm level and subsequently in marketing channels (both whole sale and retail markets) in north India and to select an effective antimicrobial agent for the control of Salmonella in poultry birds. A total of 560 chicken eggs comprising 260 from poultry farms and 300 from marketing channels were collected and screened for the presence of Salmonella during the period of April 2006 to July 2007. Twenty seven (4.82%) of the samples tested were found to be positive for Salmonella. Among the chicken eggs from poultry farms and marketing channels, 10 (3.84%) and 17 (5.5%) eggs were positive for Salmonella, respectively. Among the isolates, S. Typhimurium was the predominant serovar. Antibiogram testing revealed multi-drug resistance among Salmonella isolates from chicken eggs collected from poultry farms and marketing channels in north India. All the isolates were resistant to bacitracin, polymyxin-B and colistin, whereas sensitivity was recorded for ciprofloxacin, streptomycin and enrofloxacin.