Evaluation of the prevalence of Salmonella infection and tetracycline resistance genes in poultry samples obtained from stores in Zahedan

Salmonellosis is the most important form of bacterial infection in humans and animals caused by the non-typhoid salmonella family. Salmonella infection is the most common cause of foodborne infections. One of the most important sources of Salmonella contamination is poultry and meat products. In the last two decades, the emergence of Salmonella resistant to common antibiotics has increased the problems of Salmonella contamination in meat products. Transmission of these resistant bacteria to humans makes the treatment process difficult and lengthy. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Salmonella bacteria and tetA and tetB resistance genes from poultry stores in Zahedan. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, Salmonella isolates were isolated from 130 poultry stores in Zahedan based on standard methods published by OIE and FDA. The results of this study show that only 6.15% of the samples were Salmonella and 3.07% were Salmonella typhimurium strains. Examination of the frequency of resistance genes in isolated samples in the present study shows that in 50% of Salmonella isolates, none of the tetA or tetB resistance genes was detected, while in the other 50%, only the tetB resistance gene was identified. The presence of tetracycline resistance genes in Salmonella isolates suggests that the use of antibiotics in the poultry industry should be controlled and more carefully used to reduce the frequency of these genes.