This study was conducted to determine the Salmonella prevalence, the serotypes involved and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of isolated Salmonella from ostrich farm environment as well as from both ostrich eggs and carcasses (meat and liver). It also aimed to find out the possible sources of Salmonellae infection among ostrich flocks and the effect of such sources on the contamination of both ostrich eggs and carcasses. Three hundreds and fifteen samples were collected during summer season, 2012 from ostrich farm and slaughter house located at Elkassaseen, Ismailia province. The obtained results indicated that, the overall prevalence of Salmonella in all examined samples was 8.6 % (27/315). The prevalence of Salmonella spp. in feed, water, ostrich dropping, eggs shells, workers hands and rodents dropping were 5.3, 6.7, 10.0, 10.0, 13.3, and 20%, respectively, while the prevalence of Salmonella in ostrich liver and meat was 6.7 in both of them. The most predominant serotype of Salmonella was S. enteritides (10 strains), followed by S. typhimurium (7 strains), S. kentucky (4 strains), S. muenster (2strains), S. anatum, S. chester (one of each) and 2 untypable strains. Antibiogram patterns showed that both S. enteritidis and S. typhimurium were highly sensitive to norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin, while they were low to moderate sensitive to nalidixic acid, amoxicillin and doxycyline. At the same time, they were resistant to erythromycin, kanmycin, neomycin and tetracycline. The study concluded that there are many sources for Salmonella contamination and persistence in ostrich production system such as; feed, water, ostrich dropping, rodents, and workers. Moreover, breeder and grower flocks were exposed to high level of environmental contamination with Salmonella which resulted in the contamination of both hatching eggs and ostrich products. The suggested preventive measures for minimizing Salmonella prevalence in ostrich products and environment were discussed.
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