Epidemiology of Indigenous Strains of Avian Salmonella in Commercial and Backyard Poultry in District Faisalabad, Pakistan

Avian salmonellosis is a disease of major concern for the health of poultry as well as humans and it causes great economic losses in terms of productivity in birds and cost of treatment. It is highly pathogenic for young birds; however adult birds remain lifelong carriers. In the present study, molecular epidemiology of avian salmonellosis was studied in commercial and backyard poultry through various diagnostic procedures to identify the avian salmonellosis. The correlation of associated risk factors was also studied in perspective to disease transmission. A combination of conventional and latest diagnostic methods i.e., culture and recent techniques such as polymerase chain reaction and loop mediated isothermal amplification assay were used in this study. The Salmonella isolates resulted in straw colored or colorless colonies with black centers on Salmonella Shigella agar, greyish white colonies on blood agar and red colored colonies with black centers on Xylose Lysine Deoxycholate agar. A total of 47/376 samples were found positive, indicating 12.5% prevalence in the study area. Molecular confirmation revealed that four (04) different serovars of Salmonella are circulating in the study area. Salmonella enteritidis was the most prevalent serovar followed by Salmonella gallinarum, Salmonella pullorum and Salmonella typhimurium. Hence it was concluded that two zoonotic serovars S. enteritidis and S. typhimurium has been circulating in both types of poultry flocks including commercial and backyard.