Elsevier

Veterinary Microbiology

Volume 85, Issue 3, 22 March 2002, Pages 233-240
Veterinary Microbiology

Abomasitis associated with multiple antibiotic resistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium phagetype DT104

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1135(01)00508-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium phagetype DT104 is a multiple antibiotic resistant pathogen that has been purported to be more pathogenic than other Salmonella. In this study, we evaluated the possibility that DT104 is the causative agent of veal calf abomasitis observed in four independent outbreaks of salmonellosis. This study was undertaken to determine if the outbreaks might be due to hypervirulent S. enterica serotype Typhimurium phagetype DT104 (DT104) since Salmonella does not usually cause abomasitis. Tissues and fluids from these calves were subjected to bacteriologic culture. Pure Salmonella cultures were then used in bovine challenge experiments. DT104 was identified as the causative agent of abomasitis in calves. Thus, abomasitis is a potential indicator of infection with multiple antibiotic resistant DT104 and adds credence to the apparent hypervirulence of this pathogen.

Introduction

Multiple antibiotic resistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium phagetype DT104 (DT104) was first detected in cattle in 1988 (Hollingsworth and Kaplan, 1997). DT104 can be resistant to five antibiotics (ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline) with reports of resistance to as many as 13 antibiotics (Fedorka-Cray et al., 1998) although some DT104 isolates are sensitive to antibiotics. DT104 infections have been reported in a multitude of hosts including humans (Ridley and Threlfall, 1998), companion animals (Low et al., 1996), livestock (Imberechts et al., 1998, Poppe et al., 1998), and wildlife (Foster et al., 1998).

DT104 is an additional concern since it may be more virulent than non-resistant Salmonella (Wall et al., 1994, Evans and Davies, 1996). Therefore, further studies are warranted in order to identify new or unique pathologic conditions that can be associated with DT104 infection. In this study, we evaluated the possibility that DT104 is the causative agent of abomasitis observed in four independent cases of salmonellosis. Since abomasitis is not usually associated with salmonellosis, the association between DT104 and naturally-occurring abomasitis indicates potentially novel pathogenic mechanisms of this multiresistant pathogen.

Section snippets

Bacterial isolation and identification

Several putative outbreaks of Salmonella occurred in April and May 2000 in veal calves from independent farms each reporting 30–40% morbidity (representing 50–60 calves) and near 100% mortality for calves affected. Bacterial cultures were sent to the National Animal Disease Center on MacConkey agar plates from which putative Salmonella colonies were obtained. Pure cultures were expanded in Lennox L broth (GIBCO-BRL) and then subjected to Salmonella O antigen-based serogrouping using Salmonella

Bacterial characterization

Initial serogroup analysis indicated that strain LNWI, as well as the other three strains, belonged to Salmonella serogroup B. PCR analysis (not shown) revealed that all four strains possessed the integron structure that is characteristic of DT104 (Carlson et al., 1999). The four strains were identified as DT104 by phagetyping. Antibiograms revealed that strain LNWI displayed the ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline resistance (ASSuT) phenotype that is occasionally seen

Discussion

Antibiotic resistance in Salmonella is an important property. The multiresistant phenotype may endow a selective advantage to the colonizing microbes. In addition, recent reports suggest that multiple antibiotic resistant DT104 is more pathogenic than non-resistant Salmonella (Wall et al., 1994, Evans and Davies, 1996). Pathogenicity studies with DT104 have not identified the basis for the hypervirulence.

In this study, we isolated four strains of DT104 from calves exhibiting abomasitis. The

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Sandy Johnson for secretarial assistance, Ruth Willson for technical assistance, Kathy Ferris for strain identification, Judy Stasko for tissue preparation, Chuck Greiner for photography, Dr. Tom Stabel for ELISA assays and Drs. Mitchell Palmer and Robert Kunkle for reviewing the manuscript. We also would like to thank Norm Lyon, Roger Ezarski and Gary Buck for animal husbandry and Dr. Richard Sommers for field observations.

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1

Present address: Bacterial Diseases of Livestock Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Ames, IA 50010, USA.

2

Present address: Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Immunodiagnostics Section, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.

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