RESUMEN
Salmonellosis is one of the major concerns in the poultry industry and some serovars of Salmonella involve in zoonosis. This study determines the seroprevalence of Salmonella in poultry and their drug-resistant patterns, variability in infectivity and mortality rate of birds, and predilection of some serovars to cause zoonoses. The average seroprevalance of Salmonella in three different age groups was found to be 37.9%. A total of 503 samples were examined over a period of 1 year from five different poultry farms of a semiurban area of Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The prevalence of Salmonella was recorded to be 21.1%. Salmonella was found high in dead birds (31.2%) than live birds (18.1%). Salmonella infection was higher (23.6%) in summer than in winter (12.9%) season. Among the 106 isolates, 46 belong to serogroup B (43%) and 60 isolates to serogroup D (57%). The highest Salmonella infection was recorded as 47.9% on the 30-35-week-old birds. A total of 106 Salmonella isolates were used for antimicrobial susceptibility test against 10 common antibiotics and 17 multiple drug resistance patterns were found. Among the isolates, 69 (65%) harbored plasmids 1-4 with size variation between >1.63 and >40 kb and rest 37 (35%) isolates were plasmid free but showed resistance against 5-10 antibiotics. The results of the present investigation suggested that multiple drug resistance is common among the Salmonella isolates of poultry and some of these isolates may have zoonotic implications.