ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL SUCCEPTIBILITY PATTERNS OF SALMONELLA FROM RAW EGGS AND CLOACAL SWABS IN SELECTED POULTRY FARMS AT KOMBOLCHA DISTRICT EAST HARARGHAE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Poultry is one of the communal sources of human infection with Salmonella. A cross-sectional study design was conducted from January 2022 to June 2022 to isolate and identify Salmonella from exotic chicken eggs and cloaca swabs and to determine the source of contamination and also antimicrobial susceptibility patterns at Kombolcha districts in East Hararghae. For this study, 384 eggs (eggshell and content) and 300 cloaca swabs were collected from the market and 12 small-scale poultry using a simple random sampling technique. The entire sample was cultured for Salmonella using standard laboratory methods and its susceptibility pattern to four antimicrobial drugs was tested following the CLSI guidelines using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion assay. A questionnaire survey was also carried out on 90 respondents from farm owners, egg sellers, and consumers. As the results showed, the majority of the respondents stored eggs in open containers. 28% of eggs consumers showed their preference for raw eggs, while 71.8% do not prefer raw eggs. From respondents that practiced drunken raw eggs, 47.4% reported that they faced a problem like nausea and vomiting, or abdominal discomfort, while 52.6% reported not having the problem after drunken raw eggs. From A total of 1068 samples (eggs and cloaca swabs), Salmonella was isolated from 32.95%. Of this, 29.42% was detected from egg (17.7% from egg shell and 11.7% from egg content) and 42% from cloacal swab. Isolation of Salmonella in egg content collected from the market (34%) was significantly higher when compared to egg content collected from the farm (19.7%)(P<0.05). The difference observed between egg shell (17.7%) and egg content (11.7%) was also a statistically significant. Drug susceptibility test result on 66 isolated salmonella showed that, 100% showed susceptibility to ciprofloxacin; whereas, 100 % of them developed resistant to amoxicillin. Ciprofloxacin, and streptomycin, showed good inhibition on the bacteria; whereas, all of the isolated salmonella showed resistant against amoxicillin. Hence, strict hygienic and good management practices should be implemented to reduce the public health risks arising from Salmonella.