Prevalence, Concentrations, and Antibiotic Sensitivities of Salmonella Serovars in Poultry from Retail Establishments in Seattle, Washington

Poultry have been identified as one of the major sources of salmonellosis, with estimates ranging from 10 to 22% of total cases. Despite several advances in the industry and new performance standards, the incidence of salmonellosis in the population has not declined over the last 15 years. Salmonella is pervasive in a wide variety of foods, and thus, estimating its burden resulting from specific food categories has been challenging and plagued with uncertainty due to critical data gaps. The objective of this study was to conduct a year-long market survey (1,322 samples) to help bridge the data gaps on the contamination rates and levels of Salmonella on raw poultry by product type (i.e., breast, thighs, drums, wings, and split breast) and production method (conventional versus organic). The isolates recovered were serotyped and tested for antibiotic sensitivities. A PCR method was utilized for initial screening of samples after an overnight enrichment in tryptic soy broth. Three-tube most-probable-number (MPN) assays and anti-Salmonella immunomagnetic separation methods were utilized to determine the levels of Salmonella and aid with the recovery of Salmonella species, respectively. Eleven percent of the samples were positive for Salmonella. Significant differences in percent positive rates by product type included up to a 4-fold difference in percent positive rates between establishments, ranging from 7 to 31%. Of the samples positive for Salmonella species, 94% had <30 MPN/100 g. Production methods identified as organic or as not using antibiotics had significantly higher rates of recovery of Salmonella. On the other hand, all of the Salmonella isolates that were resistant to two or more antibiotics originated from conventional processing establishments where antibiotics were utilized. In addition, a significant proportion of isolates from conventionally processed products were serotypes clinically relevant to humans.