Evolution of drug resistance in Salmonella panama isolates in Chile

In a search for Salmonella isolates in the environment in Chile in 1975, drug-susceptible strains of Salmonella panama were recovered for the first time from river water and vegetables in the vicinity of Santiago. Two to 3 years later, antibiotic-resistant S. panama began to appear in a variety of sources (meat, animals, vegetables, etc.), giving rise to a human epidemic that involved the entire nation. Of 139 clinical isolates studied, 7 were drug susceptible, 11 were resistant only to nitrofurans, and 3 were streptomycin, spectinomycin, and nitrofuran resistant; none of these 21 isolates harbored plasmid DNA. Most isolates (n = 107) were resistant to nitrofurans (chromosomal) and to streptomycin, spectinomycin, sulfonamides, tetracycline, and mercuric and tellurite salts; this multidrug resistance was encoded on a 218-kb plasmid classified in a number of strains as being in the IncHI2 group. From 1982 to 1993, 11 isolates acquired an additional self-transferable plasmid coding for resistance to any one of ampicillin (61 kb), ampicillin and trimethoprim (65 kb), ampicillin, trimethoprim, streptomycin, and sulfonamides (71 kb), ampicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, and tetracycline (120 kb), or a nontransferable plasmid of approximately 6 kb encoding resistance to ampicillin or kanamycin. With the exception of ampicillin or ampicillin and trimethoprim resistance, S. panama isolates from foodstuffs, mainly pork meat products, and animals had resistance patterns that were the same as those found in clinical specimens. Remarkably, strains from goats and goat cheese and from shellfish isolated in particular rural regions were either drug susceptible or resistant only to streptomycin-spectinomycin encoded on a mobile genetic element and to nitrofurans. The report describes the arrival of a susceptible S. panama strain, its spread all over the country, and the evolution of progressively complex resistance patterns.