Characterization of a multidrug resistant <i>Salmonella enterica</i> give isolated from a lizard captured in a poultry house in Nigeria

Abstract

Salmonella enterica Give is one of the serotypes that have been incriminated in Salmonella infections; sometimes associated with hospitalization and mortalities in humans and animals in some parts of the world. In this work, we characterized one Salmonella Give isolated from cloaca swab of an Agama agama lizard captured from one of the commercial poultry pens in Nigeria; where lizards often have access to poultry feeds and water. The isolate was characterized based on conventional morphological and biochemical bacteriological procedures, serotyping, and PCR based Sip C gene screening. Based on the antibiotic resistant patterns of the isolate, it was further screened for the presence of point mutation at the gyrA subunit of the quinolone resistant determining region, for the presence of Salmonella Genomic Island 1(SGI1) integron related genes, and for bla- NDM-1 gene using PCR assay. The isolate exhibited resistance to: ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, amikacin, cefepime, levofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, ampicillin and streptomycin at the respective breakpoint concentration. It had a high MIC of >128μg/mL for Levofloxacin with one point mutation of H150Y substitution. The serotype did not however carry any of the SGI 1 related integron genes tested, neither does it bear the bla- NDM-1 gene despite its phenotypic resistance to ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, cefepime and amikacin at the breakpoint concentrations of 32μg/mL. This finding shows that Agama agama lizards can constitute a public health threat as agents of spreading the drug resistant serotype to poultry and humans.

Keywords: Salmonella enterica Give; lizard; public health; poultry