Khan, Anisa SarahGeorges, KarlaRahaman, SaedAbebe, WoubitAdesiyun, Abiodun Adewale2022-05-242022-05-242021-05-13Khan, A.S.; Georges, K.; Rahaman, S.; Abebe, W.; Adesiyun, A.A. Characterization of Salmonella Isolates Recovered from Stages of the Processing Lines at Four Broiler Processing Plants in Trinidad and Tobago. Microorganisms 2021, 9, 1048. https://DOI.org/10.3390/microorganisms9051048.2072-666X (online)10.3390/microorganisms9051048https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/85655SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL : S1: Flow chart of activities that take place at the four processing plants, S2: Broiler processing plant questionnaire.This cross-sectional study determined the prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors for contamination of chicken with Salmonella at four operating broiler processing plants in Trinidad. Standard methods were used to isolate and characterize the Salmonella isolates. The overall prevalence of Salmonella at the four processing plants was 27.0% (107/396). The whole carcass enrichment (WCE) method yielded a statistically significantly (p = 0.0014) higher frequency of isolation (53.9%; 97/180) than the whole carcass rinse (35.0%; 63/180) and neck skin methods (42.2%; 38/90). S. enterica serotypes Enteritidis, Javiana, and Infantis were the predominant serotypes isolated accounting for 20.8%, 16.7% and 12.5%, respectively, of the serotyped isolates. Risk factors included the use of over 100 contract farmers (OR 4.4), pre-chiller (OR 2.3), addition of chlorine to chiller (OR 3.2), slaughtering sick broilers (OR 4.4), and flocks with >50% mortality. Multi-drug resistance was detected in 12.3% (14/114) of the isolates of Salmonella. Resistance was high to kanamycin (85.7%) and doxycycline (74.6%) but low to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (2.4%) and sulphamethoxazoletrimethoprim (0.8%). The occurrence of resistant Salmonella in chickens processed at commercial broiler processing plants has implications for salmonellosis and therapeutic failure in consumers of improperly cooked contaminated chickens from these plants in the country.en© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Broiler processing plantsSalmonellaSerotypesRisk factorsAntimicrobial resistanceTrinidadWhole carcass enrichment (WCE)Article