Abstract:
Background Salmonella, is among the leading cause of foodborne illnesses in humans, is primarily sourced from
food-producing animals. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant Salmonella species has significantly increased in
recent years.
Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2022 to May 2023 to determine the prevalence
and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Salmonella in apparently healthy slaughtered cattle and abattoir personnel
at Gondar Elfora abattoir. The study was conducted 253 samples in total, including 75 carcass swabs, 75 liver tissue
samples, 75 intestinal contents samples, and 14 stool and 14 water samples from the slaughterhouse. Salmonella
isolates were identified using standard isolation and identification techniques. Each isolate was also subjected to
Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion tests for antimicrobial susceptibility. STATA version 14 was used to compute and analyses
various data from slaughterhouses, antimicrobial susceptibility test results, and animal samples using descriptive
statistics.
Results The overall proportion of Salmonella positive isolates was 13.4%( 253/34) in difference sample sources.
The prevalence of Salmonella in cattle was 12% (27/225), of which 17.3% were from carcass swabs, 10.7% were from
liver tissue, 8% were from intestinal contents, 14.3% were from human stool, and 35.7% were from water samples.
Salmonella isolates were resistant to antimicrobials with specific resistance rates 58.82% for cefoxitin (95%Rn: 42.28 –
75.37), 41.2% (95%Rn: 24.63 – 57.72) for ampicillin and 35.3% (95%Rn: 19.23 – 51.36) for tetracycline. Low resistance
pattern was reported in chloramphenicol 17.65% and nalidixic acid 14.71%.
