Aim: The present study was designed to investigate the occurrence and distribution of Salmonella serotypes in chicken meat samples, and to explore the susceptibility of the strains to antimicrobials, as well as their virulence-associated genes.

Materials and Methods: Two-hundred retail chicken meat samples from different shops, as well as 25 stool specimens from retail shop workers, were included in the study. The collected samples were examined bacteriologically for the presence of salmonellae. Salmonella isolates were serotyped using a slide agglutination test for O and H antigens and were screened for the presence of five virulence genes (stn, pef, invA, sopB, and avrA) using a uniplex polymerase chain reaction assay and for their susceptibility to 18 antimicrobial agents using the disk diffusion method.

Results: Thirty-one Salmonella isolates belonging to 12 different serovars were identified. Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Kentucky were the dominant serovars (22.6% each). Salmonella isolates displayed a high antibiotic resistance against erythromycin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, doxycycline, cephalexin, cefaclor, tetracycline, polymyxin B, cefuroxime, vancomycin, and streptomycin. All Salmonella isolates exhibited multidrug resistance (MDR) and demonstrated different virulence genes. The majority of Salmonella serovars (87.1%) harbored sopB gene, 54.8% carried avrA and pef genes, while all isolates carried invA and stn genes.

Conclusion: The presence of virulent MDR Salmonellae in raw chicken meat could allow the possibility of transmission of these resistant serovars to humans. Therefore, strict hygienic measures should be followed on the whole poultry production chain to decrease the potential transmission of Salmonella infection from poultry meat to humans.

Keywords: antibacterial susceptibility, broilers meat, multidrug resistance, Salmonella, virulence.