Prevalence of Different Salmonella enterica Subspecies and Serotypes in Wild Carnivores in Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy

Salmonella is a pathogen of considerable health concern, given its zoonotic potential, and, in Italy, is the most frequently reported causative agent for foodborne outbreaks. Wild animals and in particular wild carnivores may be carriers of different Salmonella enterica subspecies and serotypes. Giv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals
Main Authors: Lorenzo Gambi, Valentina Ravaioli, Rachele Rossini, Vito Tranquillo, Andrea Boscarino, Sara Mattei, Mario D’incau, Giovanni Tosi, Laura Fiorentini, Alessandra Di Donato
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022
Subjects:
Salmonella spp
wild carnivores
badger
red fox
wolf
Veterinary medicine
SF600-1100
Zoology
QL1-991
Canis lupus
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12233368
https://doaj.org/article/c3b42cc5e0e04804b0b64267cb10a5b0
Description
Summary:Salmonella is a pathogen of considerable health concern, given its zoonotic potential, and, in Italy, is the most frequently reported causative agent for foodborne outbreaks. Wild animals and in particular wild carnivores may be carriers of different Salmonella enterica subspecies and serotypes. Given their potential role as reservoirs, surveillance activities are necessary. This study aims to investigate the presence of different Salmonella subspecies and serotypes in wild carnivores in the Emilia-Romagna Region. A total of 718 fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), 182 badger ( Meles meles ) and 27 wolf ( Canis lupus ) carcasses, submitted between 2016–2022, were included for the present work. Gender and age data were collected along with geographical coordinates of carcass’ discovery site. Contents of the large intestine were sampled and cultured according to ISO 6579-1 and both serogroup and serotype identification were performed according to ISO/TR 6579-3:2014. Salmonella was retrieved from 42 foxes (6%), 21 badgers (12%) and 3 wolves (12%), respectively. Isolated Salmonella enterica strains belonged to 4 different subspecies and 25 different serotypes. S. veneziana and S. typhimurium were the most frequent serotypes found (11/67 and 10/67, respectively). In conclusion, zoonotic serotypes were found in all these species of wildlife, thus confirming their potential role in the ecology of Salmonella spp.

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