DRUG-RESISTANCE AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SALMONELLA FROM TURKEYS

A study was conducted to determine the antibiotic resistance and bioch emical characteristics of 2690 Salmonella strains belonging to 52 sero vars and isolated from environmental and feed samples from 270 turkey flocks in Canada, Resistance of the Salmonella strains to the aminogly coside antibiotics varied widely; none of the strains were resistant t o amikacin, 14.2% were resistant to neomycin, 25.8% were resistant to gentamicin, and 27.7% of the strains were resistant to kanamycin, Most strains (97.6%) were resistant to the aminocyclitol, spectinomycin, R egarding resistance to the beta-lactam antibiotics, 14.3% and 14.4% of the strains were resistant to ampicillin and carbenicillin, respectiv ely, whereas only 5 (0.2%) of the strains were resistant to cephalothi n, None of the strains were resistant to the fluoroquinolone ciproflox acin or to polymyxin B. Resistance to chloramphenicol and nitrofuranto in was found in 2.4% and 7% of the strains, respectively, Only 1.7% of the strains were resistant to the trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole combi nation, whereas 58.1% were resistant to sulfisoxazole. Thirty-eight pe rcent of the strains were resistant to tetracycline. Salmonella serova rs differed markedly in their drug resistance profiles, Biochemical ch aracterization of the Salmonella showed that the S. anatum, S. saintpa ul and S. reading serovars could be divided into distinct biotypes.