Antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella isolated from animals and their environment in England and Wales from 1988 to 1999

Resistance to 16 antimicrobial agents was monitored in 109,125 Salmonella cultures isolated from animals, their environment and feedstuffs between 1988 and 1999. The sensitivity of the 6512 isolates of Salmonella enterica enterica serotype Dublin to all the antimicrobial agents tested varied from 98.2 per cent in 1997 to 99.7 per cent in 1990 and 1996. In contrast, among 28,053 isolates of Salmonella enterica enterica serotype Typhimurium, there was a marked decrease in their sensitivity to all the antimicrobial agents tested, from 57.4 per cent in 1992 to 7.6 per cent in 1995, owing to the widespread occurrence in farm animals of S Typhimurium isolates of the definitive type DT104, resistant to ampicillin, sulphonamides, streptomycin, chloramphenicol and tetracyclines, although the percentage of sensitive isolates increased to 18.4 per cent in 1999, when the incidence of DT104 had decreased. Some isolates of DT104 also showed an increase in resistance to potentiated sulphonamides (2.4 per cent in 1989 to 19.2 per cent in 1999) and nalidixic acid (0 per cent in 1992, 3.8 per cent in 1995 to a peak of 16.9 per cent in 1998). In 1996, 5.1 per cent of 1086 isolates of S Typhimurium from cattle and 35.9 per cent of 192 isolates of S Typhimurium from poultry showed resistance to nalidixic acid. Of the other 74,528 Salmonella isolates, the percentage of strains sensitive to all the antimicrobials tested decreased slightly from 88.2 per cent in 1988 to 70.6 per cent in 1996 and then increased slightly to 73.7 per cent in 1999. The commonest of these other Salmonella serotypes was Salmonella Enteritidis (20,982), which remained predominantly susceptible (ranging from 81.4 to 97.4 per cent) during the study period. Few isolates were resistant to commonly used veterinary antimicrobials, for example, furazolidone, the use of which was banned in 1990, and the aminoglycoside, apramycin.