Introduction: Reported human salmonellosis cases have increased in Romania. Antibiotic susceptibility testing of Salmonella strains isolated from pork and chicken meat indicate a worrying multidrug resistance pattern. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of Salmonella and to evaluate the antibiotic resistance of Salmonella strains in a pig slaughterhouse-processing complex, which receives animals from 30% of the large industrialized swine farms in Romania.
Methodology: A total of 108 samples, including pork (n = 47), packaged pork products (n = 44), scald water sludge (n = 8), and detritus from the hair removal machine of the slaughterhouse (n = 9) were examined for the presence of Salmonella through standard methods. The antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated strains to 17 antibiotics was tested using the Vitek 2 system.
Results: Twenty-six (24.1%) samples were found to be Salmonella positive; this included 25.5% of meat samples and 15.9% of packaged products, as well as samples from two different points of the slaughter (41.2%). Resistance was observed against tetracycline (61.5%), ampicillin (50%), piperacillin (50%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (34.6%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (26.9%), nitrofurantion (23.1%), cefazolin (15.4%), piperacillin/tazobactam (7.7%), imipenem (3.8%), ciprofloxacin (3.8%), and norfloxacin (3.8%). No resistance towards cefoxitin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, cefepime, amikacin, and gentamicin was found.
Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the occurrence of multidrug-resistant Salmonella strains in the investigated pork production complex and highlighted it as a potential source of human infections. The results demonstrate the seriousness of antibiotic resistance of Salmonella in Romania, while providing a useful insight for the treatment of human salmonellosis by specialists.