Abstract
Aim: The study aimed to identify the prevalence of Salmonella species in live broiler chickens, their level of antimicrobial resistance and implications for public health. Methods: Cloacal swabs were collected, packaged and transported to Mutare Provincial Veterinary Laboratory where laboratory tests were carried out. The swabs were taken from fifteen randomly sampled chickens, representing each batch, over time in a CRD with two factors: batch (1 -5), and time (d2, 16, 30 and 44), the production cycle ended at d45. The swabs were transported aseptically (minimizing handling and enclosed in sterile equipment) in peptone water and incubated overnight in Rappaport Vissiliadis (RV) broth to obtain a pure suspension of Salmonella species. Xylose lysine deoxycholate agar (XLD) was used to culture the samples suspension followed by the citrate, lysine, motility and urease confirmatory biochemical tests. The antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was evaluated using the disc diffusion technique, this test was done to determine the susceptibility of Salmonella species to eight common commercial antibiotics. Results: The confirmed Salmonella species were S. enterica (74%), S. typhi (17%) and S. paratyphi (9%). The results also indicated that the chickens at d2 had significantly (P<0.001) higher mean cfu/gm counts. Isolates (Salmonella species) showed resistance to penicillin (100%) and ampicillin (100%) but were sensitive to kanamycin (100%). Conclusion: The current study concluded the presence of Salmonella species in live broiler chickens, and that Salmonella species are not sensitive to penicillin and ampicillin antibiotics, have intermediate sensitivity to erythromycin, but sensitive to kanamycin. This has implications to both broiler production and public health, since proliferation of the species is correlated to environmental factors such as temperature, precipitation, pollution, and nutrient availability, all of which are generally high in Zimbabwe.