Molecular characterization of virulence and resistance genes in Salmonella strains isolated from chickens sold at the informal chicken market in Gauteng Province, South Africa

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Authors

Mokgophi, Thelma M.
Gcebe, Nomakorinte
Fasina, Folorunso Oludayo
Adesiyun, Abiodun Adewale

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley

Abstract

This cross-sectional study determined the occurrence of virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes in Salmonella strains recovered from chicken obtained from informal markets in Gauteng province, South Africa. The study also assessed the relationship between these characteristics, the source, the type of samples, and the serotypes of Salmonella isolates. A total of 151 samples (cloacal swabs, chicken carcasses, and carcass drips) were randomly collected from 47 informal market outlets in six townships in Gauteng province. Salmonella spp. was isolated and identified based on ISO 6579:2002 methods and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting invA gene fragment. Conventional PCR was used to detect 12 virulence and 18 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes in Salmonella spp. The most frequently detected virulence genes were invA (100%), shdA (91%), mgtB (87.7%), and sopE (81%), but considerably low for spvC (2.2%), sefC (1.5%), and pefC (0.4%). The differences in detection frequency were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Tetracycline-resistant genes tetA (34.7%) and tetB (16%) were the most frequently detected, while Betalactam- resistant genes blaTEM (0.4%), blaCMY-2 (0.4%) and quinolones resistant gene qnrS (0.4%) were detected in low frequency (p < 0.05). The locations of the outlets and the types of samples were significantly associated with detecting some virulence and AMR genes. Significant but moderately to substantial positive correlations were observed for qnrS, sul2; shdA, and mgtB genes. The pipA and spiC were, however, substantially negatively correlated. Our findings show that detecting these virulence and AMR genes in Salmonella isolates serves as a potential health hazard to the public, environment, and poultry farming in Gauteng, South Africa.

Description

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in University of Pretoria, Research Data Repository at http://repository.up.ac.za.

Keywords

Chicken, Informal market, Salmonella, Virulence genes, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Gauteng Province, South Africa, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), SDG-02: Zero hunger

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-02:Zero Hunger

Citation

Mokgophi, T. M., Gcebe, N., Fasina, F., & Adesiyun, A. A. (2024). Molecular characterization of virulence and resistance genes in Salmonella strains isolated from chickens sold at the informal chicken market in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Journal of Food Safety, 44(2), e13110. https://DOI.org/10.1111/jfs.13110.