ANTIBIOGRAM PROFILE AND VIRULENCE GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF NON-TYPHOIDAL Salmonella SPECIES ISOLATED FROM THE FAECES OF CHICKENS IN OTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2026-1005-4832Keywords:
Antimicrobial resistance, Virulence, Non-typhoidal Salmonella, Poultry, NigeriaAbstract
Some healthy chickens harbour Salmonella serovars, which could potentially contaminate raw animal products during processing, and eventually transferred to humans. This study was aimed, at determining the antibiotic resistance pattern and genetic virulence determinants that encode invasion A protein (invA), flagella biosynthetic protein (fliR) and tetrathionate reductase (ttrA) in Salmonella enterica serovars, isolated from the faeces of chickens. Two hundred faecal samples were obtained from a commercial layer poultry farm, and 25 presumptive non-typhoidal strains were recovered. Antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) was conducted, by the disc diffusion method, and virulence genes were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The highest resistance among the non-typhoidal Salmonella in this study was to ampicillin (32 %); however, a high proportion of the isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol (96 %). Out of the 25 serovars, 5 (20 %) exhibited multidrug resistance to 3 or more classes of antibiotics. The invA gene was confirmed in all the 25 (100 %) Salmonella strains, while fliR and ttrA genes were detected in 9 (36 %) and 7 (28 %) of the isolates, respectively. The Salmonella serovars and multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains detected in the faecal samples of commercial layer flocks in this study could pose a risk to public health, as the bacteria can spread to humans via consumption. Therefore, a paradigm for more focused biosafety measures must be considered by poultry farmers.
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