Vol. 11, Special Issue 12 (2022)

Author(s):
S Santhosh Kumar, A Thangavelu, K Vijayarani, P Shamsudeen and K Senthil Kumar

Abstract:
Salmonellosis is a bacterial disease of poultry affecting primarily chickens and turkeys. Other poultry such as pheasants, quail, ducks, guinea-fowl and peafowl are also susceptible. Antimicrobials in feed formulations are regularly used at sub-therapeutic levels in commercial poultry business to prevent the occurrence of gastro intestinal, respiratory and reproductive diseases caused by bacteria or / and viruses. In this context, a pilot study was undertaken in three districts of Tamil Nadu to understand the technical knowledge of antimicrobial usage by the farmers and the antimicrobial resistance exhibited by Salmonella isolated from apparently healthy layer flocks. A total of 900 cloacal swab samples were collected from 10 layer farms from each district of North western agro climatic zone and screened for the presence of Salmonella spp. isolation is by non-selective pre-enrichment followed by selective enrichment before plating on selective and differential agars. Twelve Salmonella isolates were isolated and Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility test was performed against various antibiotics.