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Prevalence, typing and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella isolates from commercial shellfish in the North coast of Morocco

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Abstract

Salmonellosis is one of the most common foodborne illnesses in the world. The irrational use of antibiotics in medicine and in animal nutrition has greatly favored the emergence and spread of resistant strains of non-typhoid Salmonella. This study aims the determination of the prevalence of Salmonella in bivalve mollusks in Northern Morocco, as well as the molecular typing and antibiotic susceptibility testing of the strains isolated from positive samples. In total, 150 samples from shellfish composed of mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), clams (Callista chione and Ruditapes descussatus) and oysters (Magallana gigas). Isolated Salmonella were characterized by Molecular techniques PCR, MLST and MLVA, phylogenetically grouped by MLSA, and susceptibilities were determined for 30 antimicrobial drugs using microdilution method by the BD Phoenix Automated Microbiology System. Prevalence of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica was 12.67%, grouped in four serovars identified as Chester, Hadar, Typhimurium and Kentucky. Five different MLST STs (sequence types) were detected, ST1954 being the most common, which was mostly found in Chester isolates. Forty-two percent of the isolates showed resistance to more than one antibiotic, especially trimethoprim, sulfa drugs, quinolones and β-lactam. There was a marked change in the serovars and antimicrobial resistance profiles of the Salmonella isolates in this study compared to those in previous studies.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to many people who contributed directly or indirectly to the realization of this work: the Regional Environmental Laboratory of the Urban Community of Tetouan (Morocco), ONSSA laboratory in Tangier (Morocco), Department of Biomedicine and Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Unit at University of Alcalá (Spain), and Clinical Microbiology Service at the University Hospital Príncipe de Asturias (Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology Laboratory (BMA), Department of Biology, Abdelmalek Essadi University, Tétouan, Morocco

    Rajae Zahli, Jamal Abrini & Skali Senhaji Nadia

  2. Department of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Faculty of Farmacy, University of Alcalá, 28805, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Soliveri, José L. Copa-Patiño & Ann-Karolin Scheu

  3. Regional Environmental Laboratory of the Urban Community of Tetouan, Tétouan, Morocco

    Amajoud Nadia

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  1. Rajae Zahli
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Correspondence to Rajae Zahli.

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Zahli, R., Soliveri, J., Abrini, J. et al. Prevalence, typing and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella isolates from commercial shellfish in the North coast of Morocco. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 37, 170 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-021-03136-w

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