Contamination of Chicken Meat with Salmonella enterica Serovar Haardt with Nalidixic Acid Resistance and Reduced Fluoroquinolone Susceptibility

Salmonella contamination in chicken meat was studied with 100 chicken meat samples purchased from 55 shops located in various regions. A total of 21 isolates of Salmonella enterica were isolated from 21 chicken meat samples from four shops located at open markets, whereas there were none from supermarkets with well-equipped cold systems. Among these, 18 isolates were identified as Salmonella enterica serotype Haardt (S. Haardt) and three isolates were S. enterica serotype Muenchen. When the minimal inhibitory concentrations of the S. Haardt isolates were assayed with the agar dilution method to determine susceptibility to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, sulfisoxazole, tetracycline, and nalidixic acid, all 18 isolates were resistant to tetracycline and nalidixic acid and nine of these were resistant to ampicillin. These isolates showed reduced susceptibility to eight fluoroquinolones including ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, levofloxacin, gatifloxacin, gemifloxacin, moxifloxacin, norfloxacin, and ofloxacin. When quinolone resistance determining regions of gyrA and gyrB were sequenced, every isolate had the same missense mutation Ser83$\rightarrow$Tyr (TCC$\rightarrow$+TAC) in gyrA, whereas no mutation was found in gyrB. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis with XbaI revealed a close relationship among these isolates, suggesting a contamination of raw chicken meat with clonal spread of nalidixic acid-resistant and quinolone-reduced susceptibility S. Haardt in chickens. Results in this study show the importance of a well-equipped cold system and the prudent use of fluoroquinolone in chickens to prevent the occurrence of quinolone-resistant isolates.