DISTRIBUTION OF Salmonella enteritidis GENOTYPES AMONG SELECTED BROILER FLOCKS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Summary: Cases of human salmonellosis continued decreasing at the EU level in 2012; a total of 92,916 cases were reported by 27 EU Member States. With 91,034 confirmed cases, this represented a 4.7% decrease in comparison to 2011. In the EU, Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium are the serovars most frequently associated with human illness. Human S. Enteritidis cases are most commonly connected with the consumption of contaminated eggs and poultry. In 2012, the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in broiler flocks was 3.1%. Serovar Enteritidis was isolated in 0.2% of broiler flocks at the EU level. According to the first post-war national monitoring program conducted during 2012 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and S. Enteritidis in broiler flocks was 10.0% and 8.7%, respectively. To obtain better insight into the epidemiology of the dominant serovar S. Enteritidis within the selected broiler flocks, genotyping with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed using XbaI with isolates obtained in 2010–2011 from broiler farms located in seven geographical regions with the highest density of them. Due to the apparent similarity of the genotypes found in several broiler flocks, our findings suggest a homogenous population of S. Enteritidis circulating among the vast majority of broiler flocks. Secondly, since identical or very similar genotypes were also found in faecal samples from broiler flocks and dust samples from hatcheries, a common source of infection can be indicated.