Salmonella is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide, and the infection with multidrug-resistant strains can cause severe diseases. This study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance, to detect the virulence genes, and to study the genetic diversity of isolated Salmonella strains using 16S rRNA sequences. For this, 34 Salmonella strains isolated from sausages were identified using biochemical and serological methods. Molecular tools were used to evaluate the presence of virulence genes (orgA, sitC, sipB, spiA, iroN, and sifA) using simplex and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and to sequence 16S rRNA genes for phylogenetic analysis. The susceptibility to 24 selected antibiotics was also studied. The results of this study showed that all isolated Salmonella were positive for targeted virulence genes and were resistant to at least one antibiotic. However, the multidrug resistance was observed in 44% of isolated strains. The phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA sequences highlighted that Salmonella isolates were divided into 3 clusters and 3 sub-clusters, with a ≥98% similarity to Salmonella enterica species. From this study, we conclude that sausages are considered as a potential source of Salmonella, which could be a major risk to public health.
Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Salmonella; phylogenetic tree; sausages; virulence genes.