Testing antimicrobial resistance in non-typhoidal Salmonella from retail foods collected in 2020 in China

Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) is a major cause of human salmonellosis globally. Food animals are major NTS reservoirs. An increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in foodborne NTS has led to clinical treatment failures. To examine the prevalence and perform characterization of foodborne NTS with AMR in China, the authors of a newly published article in Zoonoses tested the antimicrobial susceptibility of 1,256 NTS isolates cultured from retail foods in 2020 in China.

The overall drug resistance rate was 92.28%, and the multi-drug resistance (MDR) rate was 76.53%. A total of 341 AMR profiles were determined, and resistance was highest to nalidixic acid (63.38%). Among 887 NTS isolates with MDR, 232 showed co-resistance to cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin, and 25 were resistant to ten classes of antimicrobial agents.