Antibiotic Resistance in Salmonella from Retail Foods of Animal Origin and Its Association with Disinfectant and Heavy Metal Resistance.

This study aims to demonstrate the antibiotic resistance and its association with disinfectant and heavy metal resistance in 152 Salmonella isolates recovered from retail foods of animal origins. Susceptibility testing demonstrated that 92.8% isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic, and the resistance was highest to oxytetracycline (80.9%), followed by trimethoprim (64.5%), amoxicillin (28.9%), ampicillin (28.3%), levofloxacin (21.7%), ciprofloxacin (16.4%), and gentamicin (10.5%), respectively. The blaTEM and tetA genes (44.7%) were commonly present. The qacF and qacEΔ1 genes were detected in 18.4% and 8.6% of all isolates. The Cu-resistance genes pcoR, pcoC, and pcoA were the most prevalent (20.4-40.8%), followed by Hg-resistance gene merA (17.8%) and As-resistance genes arsB (6.6%). The antibiotic resistance was highly associated with disinfectant or certain heavy metal resistance genes. Most notably, the association among Cu-resistance genes (pcoC, pcoR), disinfectant resistance genes (qacF, qacEΔ1), and tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes (tet, sul) was significant (p < 0.05). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed that Salmonella isolates was associated with supermarkets indicating the possibility of crosscontamination in farms or processing environment. This study indicated that retail meats may be a reservoir for the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella and using disinfectants for decontamination or metals in livestock may provide a pressure for coselecting strains with acquired resistance to other antimicrobials.