Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiles of Salmonella serotypes isolated from seven chicken meat brands produced by different integrated broiler operations in Korea have been reported in the latest issue of Poultry Science.

M-S. Kim of Konkuk University in the Republic of Korea and colleagues there and at Samhwa Breedings Agri. Inc. and CJ Cheiljedang Co. explain in the paper that in total, 210 samples were collected from retail supermarkets in Seoul and analysed for the presence of Salmonella.

Of 210 chicken meat samples, overall Salmonella prevalence was 22.4 per cent.

Salmonella Enteritidis was the dominant serovar, with an isolation rate of 57.4 per cent from the Salmonella-positive chickens, followed by Salmonella Montevideo.

Salmonella isolates frequently were resistant to various antibiotics, including 100 per cent to erythromycin, 87 per cent to cephalothin, 85 per cent to nalidixic acid, and 70 per cent to streptomycin. Of the 47 isolates, 41 (87.2 per cent isolates were resistant to three or more antibiotics.

There were differences in Salmonella profiles of each chicken meat brand by broiler operation. Brand A showed the highest prevalence of Salmonella (18 isolates, 60 per cent), whereas brand G showed the lowest prevalence (one isolate, 3.3 per cent).

Eight among the 18 isolates of brand A were resistant to 11 antibiotics, whereas five of the six brand C isolates were resistant to only two antibiotics.

This study demonstrates that a high proportion of chicken meat in Korea is contaminated with Salmonella, concluded Kim and co-authors, and the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance patterns of Salmonella of chicken meat differ significantly according to the integrated broiler operation.

Reference

Kim M-S., T-H. Lim, J-H. Jang, D-H. Lee, B-Y. Kim, J-H. Kwon, S-W. Choi, J-Y. Noh, Y-H. Hong, S-B. Lee, S-Y. Yang, H-J. Lee, J-B. Lee, S-Y. Park, I-S. Choi and C-S. Song. 2012. Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella species isolated from chicken meats produced by different integrated broiler operations in Korea. Poult. Sci., 91(9):2370-2375. doi: 10.3382/ps.2012-02357

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