Epidemiological significance of Salmonella enterica serovar Montevideo and the potential role of feed for their entry into the food chain

Abstract

Animal feed is the first link in the food chain and one of the possible source of Salmonella for food producing animals and consequently, humans consuming products of animal origin. The assessment of the importance and role of Salmonella organisms commonly detected in animal feed in epidemic outbreaks of salmonellosis is highly intricate. This is mainly due to the fact that isolates are rarely identified (typed) to the serovar level, thus, the relevant data on both animal feed and food of animal origin are lacking. In the framework of the 2-year project granted by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, all Salmonella isolates originating from animal feed were typed to the serovar level in the National Reference Laboratory for Salmonella. Eighteen different serovars have been identified, whereas 15% of all isolates included serovar Montevideo. Frequent isolation of S. ser. Montevideo from animal feed originating from feed mills in our epizootic area (South Bačka and Srem district), encouraged our attempt to summarize and present the available data on the importance of Montevideo serovar in the outbreaks of clinical salmonellosis in humans and to review the reports on individual epidemiological studies aimed at detecting infection sources and establishing relevant facts on emerging antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella. Moreover, this article emphasizes the need and importance of an extensive Salmonella monitoring program at national level, which would encompass all links of the food chain including animal feed and feed processing plants as well.

Keywords

• animal feed
• food chain
• Salmonella ser. Montevideo