Occurrence of Salmonella spp. in eggs from backyard chicken flocks in Portugal and Romania - results of a preliminary study

The aim of this study was to conduct a preliminary investigation on the occurrence of Salmonella spp. in eggs from chickens raised in backyards in Portugal and Romania. A lack of compliance with safety practices by chicken owners, was demonstrated, especially in Portugal, as 96% of the eggs were visibly dirty and 92.5% were stored at room temperature. In Romania the 202 analysed eggs were Salmonella free, whereas in Portugal six of the 200 eggs sampled were positive for Salmonella spp. (3%). A positive egg for Salmonella spp. was found in 10.7% of the 56 backyard flocks sampled in Portugal. One egg exhibited contamination both in the shell-membrane mixture and in its content, while in the remaining eggs, the pathogen was found either in the shell-membrane (n = 2) or in the yolk and white mixture (n = 3). The serotypes S. Typhimurium (with identical PFGE patterns) and S. Enteritidis were isolated from five eggs and one egg, respectively. Whilst S. Enteritidis was sensitive to the 14 antibiotics tested, S. Typhimurium isolates presented divergent antimicrobial resistant phenotypes and three were classified as multi-drug resistant.