The occurrence of salmonellae in reptiles kept privateley or in zoos in Austria

A total of 328 reptiles were tested for injection with salmonellae. Of these, 84 were maintained in three zoos, 31 in an animal shelter and 254 were kept as pets by 113 people. Faecal samples from 48 snapping turtles, 139 tortoise, 93 saurians and 48 snakes were examined by bacteriological culture. The prevalence of infection was 16.7 % in snapping turtles, 39.6 % in tortoises, 69.9 % in saurians and 79.2 % in snakes. Isolates from snapping turtles comprised 9 serotypes, 36 serotypes were isolated from tortoises, 49 from saurians and 3 7 from snakes. The majority (58.4 %) of salmonella isolates were identified as salmonella subspecies I, 16.8 % were subspecies IIIb, 11.8 % subspecies II, 10.4 % subspecies IV and 1.1 % subspecies IIIa. One hundred and sixty-three isolates of salmonella subspecies I were isolated from snapping turtles (38.5 %), snakes (65.9 %) saurians (67.7 %) and tortoises (80 %). S. newport was isolated from 22 samples, S. montevideo from 19 and S. oranienburg from 7. Sporadic isolations of S. eastbourne, S. maracaibo, S. Richmond,S. typhimurium and S. paratyphi B were made. There was some variation in the serovars found in the various species. Infected reptiles contained one serovar in 122 cases, two serovars were found in 33 animals, 3 in 15 animals and 4 serovars in one animal. Collections of one to two reptiles had the lowest prevalence (16.8 %) compared to collections of three or more reptiles (31 %). Salmonella carriers were less prevalent in privately owned collections (34.9 %) compared to commerciall kept reptiles including those in zoos (74.8 %).