Prevalence, quantification, and antimicrobial drug resistance of Salmonella serovars isolated from fresh pork sausage

Salmonella sp. is one of the main causes of food poisoning. In the last years, the main focus has been on beef and swine products because of both public health concerns and commercialization/exportation. This study was conducted in order to: 1) verify the prevalence of Salmonella serovars in fresh pork sausages commercialized in Lages, state of Santa Catarina and analyze its level of contamination; and 2) determine the profile of antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella sp. isolates. For this purpose, 200 samples of nine brands were collected from different commercial stores. Salmonella sp. was isolated from 27% (54). Serovar Derby accounted for the highest percentage of isolates. Only one sausage sample had a quantity of microorganism higher than 1.100 MPN.g(-1). This microorganism concentration is considered enough to cause a nontyphoidal Salmonella infection. Later, the 60 strains were tested against 14 antimicrobials. Among them, 56,67% showed resistance to at least one antimicrobial agent and 20% showed multi-resistance. The Salmonella sp. prevalence in the products may be a risk for the consumer, mainly considering the high number of antimicrobial resistant isolates found in the study.