Occurrence, antimicrobial resistance and whole-genome sequencing analysis of Salmonella isolates from chicken carcasses imported into Iraq from four different countries

Salmonella is a major cause of human foodborne illnesses worldwide; however, little is known about its occurrence and genomic characteristics in food sources in many developing countries. This study investigates the occurrence, serotypes distribution, antimicrobial resistance, and multilocus sequence types (ST) of Salmonella isolated from 400 imported frozen chicken carcasses sold in the markets of Thi-Qar, south-eastern Iraq. Salmonella was detected in 46 out of 400 tested samples [11.5% (95% confidence interval: 8.5%–15.0%)]. S. Typhimurium was the most abundant (30.4%) among 14 different serotypes recovered from the tested frozen carcasses. Antimicrobial resistance was most frequently detected against tetracycline (84.4%), nalidixic acid (80.4%), streptomycin (69.6%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (65.2%). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis revealed that 18 isolates harbored four β-lactamase resistance genes, with bla_CARB-2 was the most commonly (14/18) detected. It was possible to identify 8 multilocus sequence types from the WGS analysis of 40 out of the 46 Salmonella isolates; with ST-11 (among S. Enteritidis) and ST-19 (among S. Typhimurium) were the most frequently detected. These results add to our understanding of the global epidemiology of Salmonella. Our work stands as one of the first reports on WGS analysis of Salmonella from retail chicken in a Middle-Eastern country. Results from this study could be valuable for guiding an informed import risk analysis aiming at reducing the exposure risk from Salmonella through imported chicken carcasses into Iraq. This work demonstrates the value of WGS as a promising tool for supporting evidence-based food safety hazard characterization.