title: Salmonella in the tropical household environment--Everyday, everywhere.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of Salmonella in the environment of case and control houses, and compare serovars isolated from cases and their houses.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2005 to 2008, we tested samples from houses of 0-4 year old cases and community controls in Darwin and Palmerston for Salmonella. Case isolates were compared with environmental isolates. S. Ball and S. Urbana isolates were compared using Multiple Amplification of Phage Locus Typing (MAPLT) and Multiple-Locus Variable number of tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Salmonella were found in 47/65 (72%) case houses and 18/29 (62%) control houses; these proportions were not significantly different. In 21/47 (45%) houses, case and environmental isolates (from animal faeces, soil and vacuums) were indistinguishable. Multiple serovars were isolated from 20 (31%) case and 6 (21%) control houses. All but one environmental isolate are known human pathogens in the Northern Territory (NT). Each of the four pairs of S. Ball and S. Urbana were indistinguishable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Animal faeces were the most likely source of salmonellosis in cases. The similar prevalence of house isolates suggests that Salmonella is ubiquitous in this environment. The distinction of S. Ball and S. Urbana subtypes enabled linkage of human illness to environmental exposure. Environmental contamination with Salmonella is an important source of sporadic infection in children in the tropics.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services (NTDHCS), Darwin, Northern Territory (NT), Australia; National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health (NCEPH), Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia. Electronic address: shelleewilliams75@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shellee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health (NCEPH), Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia. Electronic address: Mahomed.Patel@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Mahomed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services (NTDHCS), Darwin, Northern Territory (NT), Australia. Electronic address: Peter.Markey@nt.gov.au.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Markey
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services (NTDHCS), Darwin, Northern Territory (NT), Australia. Electronic address: RosanneMuller@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Rosanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.affiliation: Berrimah Veterinary Laboratories, NT Department of Resources (DoR), Darwin, NT, Australia. Electronic address: Suresh.Benedict@nt.gov.au.
authors.forename: Suresh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benedict
authors.affiliation: Public Health Unit, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, SA Pathology, Adelaide, South Australia (SA), Australia. Electronic address: Ian.Ross@health.sa.gov.au.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Public Health Unit, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, SA Pathology, Adelaide, South Australia (SA), Australia. Electronic address: mheuzenr@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heuzenroeder
authors.affiliation: Public Health Unit, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, SA Pathology, Adelaide, South Australia (SA), Australia. Electronic address: dianned@internode.on.net.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Davos
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health (NCEPH), Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia. Electronic address: Scott.Cameron@adelaide.edu.au.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services (NTDHCS), Darwin, Northern Territory (NT), Australia. Electronic address: Vicki.Krause@nt.gov.au.
authors.forename: Vicki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Krause
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001434:Bacteriophage Typing; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012475:Salmonella / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012480:Salmonella Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D065288:Serogroup; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: Animals; Bacterial typing techniques/methods; Children; Faeces; Infant; Salmonella; Salmonella infections; Serogroup; Soil; Vacuum cleaner