Brief communication

National surveillance of Salmonella enterica in food-producing animals in Japan

Kanako Ishihara^1,2 , Toshio Takahashi¹ , Ayako Morioka¹ , Akemi Kojima¹ , Mayumi Kijima¹ , Tetsuo Asai¹ and Yutaka Tamura^1,2

¹  National Veterinary Assay Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 1-15-1 Tokura, Kokubunji, Tokyo 185-8511, Japan

²  Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, Ebetsu, Hokkaido 069-8501, Japan

author email corresponding author email

Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:35doi:10.1186/1751-0147-51-35

Published:	25 August 2009

Abstract

A total of 518 fecal samples collected from 183 apparently healthy cattle, 180 pigs and 155 broilers throughout Japan in 1999 were examined to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella. The isolation rates were 36.1% in broilers, 2.8% in pigs and 0.5% in cattle. S. enterica Infantis was the most frequent isolate, found in 22.6% of broiler fecal samples. Higher resistance rates were observed against oxytetracycline (82.0%), dihydrostreptomycin (77.9%), kanamycin (41.0%) and trimethoprim (35.2%). Resistance rates to ampicillin, ceftiofur, bicozamycin, chloramphenicol and nalidixic acid were <10%. CTX-M-2 β-lactamase producing S. enterica Senftenberg was found in the isolates obtained from one broiler fecal sample. This is the first report of cephalosporin-resistant Salmonella directly isolated from food animal in Japan.