Low prevalence of Salmonella enterica in Australian wildlife

A total of 2489 wildlife hosts from Australia were sampled in order to determine the fraction of hosts that harboured Salmonella enterica as a dominant member of the host's enteric community. Hosts sampled included fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals from the four main climatic regions of Australia: desert, grassland, temperate and tropical. Salmonella enterica was predominately isolated from reptiles, in particular, lizards. It was also isolated from mammals, though not from any fish, frog or bird host. Salmonella enterica was more likely to be isolated from lizards living in desert or grassland regions of Australia compared with lizards inhabiting tropical or temperate regions. The low prevalence of S. enterica isolated from wildlife hosts in Australia indicates that Australian wildlife are unlikely to play a large role in disseminating S. enterica to humans and livestock.