title: Occurrence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella isolates recovered from the pig slaughter process in Romania.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Banat's University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine King Michael I of Romania, Timişoara, Romania. adrianamo2001@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morar
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: Kálmán
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Imre
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002645:Chickens; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D005511:Food Handling; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D012383:Romania; D012475:Salmonella / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents