Research Article
Kassahun Tessema, Hussen Be
Abstract
Salmonella have been found to be the major food borne disease in the world with a serious public health problem. The current study was carried out to detect and to determine the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of Salmonella isolated from fresh raw chicken eggs collected at Haramaya University Poultry Farm in Eastern Ethiopia. Among the total 384 chicken eggs, Salmonella spp. was detected from 2.9% (11/384) of egg samples using culture technique and was confirmed by biochemical test, nine Salmonella spp. (2.4%) were detected from egg shell and two (0.5%) from egg contents; predominantly occurred in floor house system. The prevalence of Salmonella in eggs on the bases of chicken breed sources was 2.9%, 3.8% and 2% for Bovans, Fayoumi and White leg horn, respectively. The prevalence difference did not show statistical significance (P>0.05) between the rate of detecting Salmonella spp. among the egg shell and egg contents, and similarly, non-significant analytical situation was observed in eggs sampled from different chicken breeds. Among the sample sources, egg samples examined from cage and floor house were found Salmonella positive with the prevalence of 2.3% and 3.3%, respectively. However, there was no statistically significant difference (P>0.05) in the prevalence of Salmonella among the two house systems. All identified isolates were tested for susceptibility to a six commonly used antimicrobials by disk diffusion technique. Out of the 11 isolates tested 8(72.7%) were resistant to one or more of the tested antimicrobials. The most common resistance observed was to tetracycline (72.7%), ampicillin (72.7%) and amoxicillin (63.6%). However, spectinomycin, kanamycin and chloramphenicol were effective against most of the Salmonella isolates.