Characteristic diversity and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella from gastroenteritis

Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne disease worldwide and may cause to gastroenteritis. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, serotypes, virulence genes, molecular subtyping, and antibiotic resistance phenotype of Salmonella from gastroenteritis in Hubei, China. Of 500 patients stools samples collected from January 2015 to January 2016, 52 (10.40%) samples were contaminated by Salmonella. The results showed that most of the isolates were positive for eight virulence genes that appear on pathogenicity islands, prophages, plasmid, and fimbrial. A total of twelve serotypes were found. Antimicrobial susceptibility results indicated that most strains were resistant to ampicillin (57.69%), kanamycin (53.85%), and tetracycline (40.38%). There were 33 STs on MLST types, and were grouped into two clusters. Thus, our findings provided insights into the dissemination of antibiotic resistant strains, genetic diversity, and improved our knowledge of microbiological risk assessment in Salmonella from gastroenteritis.