Salmonella enterica in semi-aquatic turtles in Colombia

Introduction: Turtles can be hosts of Salmonella enterica serovars which can cause disease both in the animals themselves and in people they come into contact with, especially when the turtles are kept as pets. To investigate the prevalence of Salmonella in turtles in Colombia, we studied animals at a wildlife protection centre. The turtles had either been confiscated or donated to the centre. Methodology: Detection of Salmonella spp. was conducted in feces samples using bacteriological cultures and polymerase chain reaction to identify genus and serovar. Results: By PCR and culture, 30/110 samples (27%) were positive while by PCR alone eight further samples were positive (total of 38/110 (35%) positive). The most common serovar was S. Enteritidis (26/38 (68%) with only one isolate being S. Typhimurium (3%). Four (11%) samples were positive for both serovars and seven (18%) could only be identified as Salmonella enterica spp. Conclusions: These results show that turtles in Colombia are commonly infected with Salmonella and are a risk for infection to people who come into contact with them.