Isolation of Salmonella from meat samples and characterization by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction and antibiotics test.

Salmonella is one of the most important foodborne pathogens associated with severe diseases in animals and humans. Meat samples are considered as one of the main sources of Salmonella infections. Consequently, the survey of Salmonella contamination in meat samples is of outmost importance for the control and prevention of severe diseases. In this study, 250 meat samples were selected for surveys of Salmonella contaminations. Results indicated that 12% (n=30) of samples tested were positive to Salmonella. The genetic characterization of 30 Salmonella was studied by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR), and 22 of ERIC-PCR types were found with D of 94.8%. In addition, the resistant characterization was also carried out using nine antibiotics test, and nine resistant patterns were observed with D of 88.7%. A good correlation was also observed between ERIC-PCR fingerprinting and resistant patterns in some Salmonella such as SAL 6 and SAL 7.