title: Incidence of Nontyphoidal Salmonella in Food-Producing Animals, Animal Feed, and the Associated Environment in South Africa, 2012-2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nontyphoidal salmonellosis continues to pose a global threat to human health, primarily by causing food-borne illnesses, and food-producing animals are the principal reservoirs of many pathogenic serovars. To identify key control points and generate information that may enable future estimation of the transmission routes between the environment, animals, and humans, we examined data on Salmonella isolates in South Africa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Samples were obtained from livestock and poultry on farms, meat at abattoirs, raw materials at feed mills, animal feed, and environmental sources (eg, poultry houses, abattoirs, feed mills, water) from 2012 to 2014 in compliance with each establishment's protocols conforming to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (ISO/TS 17728, ISO 18593:2004 and ISO 17604:2003) standards. Isolation and serotyping of Salmonella were performed according to the scope of accreditation of the respective laboratories conforming to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard techniques.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Salmonella was isolated from 9031 of 180 298 (5.0%) samples, and these isolates were distributed among 188 different serovars. Salmonella Enteritidis was the most frequent isolate, with 1944 of 180 298 (21.5%) originating from poultry on farms, poultry meat, and poultry houses, followed by Salmonella Havana, with 677 of 180 298 (7.5%), mostly from environmental samples. Serovars that are uncommonly associated with human disease (Salmonella Idikan, Salmonella Salford, and Salmonella Brancaster) were isolated at higher frequencies than Salmonella Typhimurium, a common cause of human illness. Environmental samples accounted for 3869 of 9031 (42.8%) samples positive for Salmonella.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We describe the frequent isolation of Salmonella of a wide variety of serovars, from an array of animal feeds, food animals, and food animal environment. As prevention of human salmonellosis requires the effective control of Salmonella in food animals, these data can be used to facilitate Salmonella control in food animals and thereby prevent human infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Directorate of Veterinary Public Health, Pretoria.
authors.forename: Kudakwashe
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Magwedere
authors.affiliation: Deltamune Laboratories, Centurion.
authors.forename: Dionne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rauff
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology Section, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Directorate of Animal Health, Pretoria.
authors.forename: Grietjie
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Klerk
authors.affiliation: Centre for Enteric Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Karen H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Keddy
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dziva
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000382:microbiology*; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control; D059022:Food Safety; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006799:Housing, Animal; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008460:Meat; D011200:Poultry / Q000382:microbiology; D012478:Salmonella Food Poisoning / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012477:Salmonella enteritidis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012703:Serotyping; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Salmonella; environment; feed; livestock; meat safety