Prevalence of Salmonella Isolates and Antimicrobial Resistance in Poultry Meat from South Korea

Contamination of Salmonella was assessed in duck and chicken meat collected from supermarkets, traditional markets, internet shopping malls, and wholesale markets in Jeonlado, South Korea, in 2013. Salmonella contamination was found in 51.3% of duck meat samples and 3.7% of chicken meat samples. Salmonella contamination of duck meat samples differed by meat type, i.e., 69.8% of samples of whole ducks and 33.9% of samples of duck pieces. Six serotypes were identified from 64 Salmonella isolates in duck meat: Salmonella Typhimurium (37.5%), Salmonella Enteritidis (21.8%), Salmonella Stanley (3.1%), Salmonella Regent (1.6%), Salmonella Winterthur (3.1%), and Salmonella Westhampton (1.6%). All isolates were resistant to one or more antibiotics. Resistance to sulfisoxazole was most common (93.8% of isolates), followed by resistance to nalidixic acid (59.4%), ceftazidime (26.6%), and ampicillin (26.6%). To our knowledge, this study is the first to report Salmonella contamination in duck meat from Korea. Duck meat should be considered an important source of foodborne pathogens.