Investigating selective media for optimal isolation of Brucella spp. in South Africa.

Bovine brucellosis in South Africa is caused mainly by Brucella abortus biovar (bv.) 1 and less frequently by B. abortus bv.

Seroprevalence and characterization of Brucella species in cattle slaughtered at Gauteng abattoirs, South Africa.

Background: Brucellosis is an infectious and contagious zoonotic bacterial disease of both humans and animals. In developing countries where brucellosis is endemic, baseline data on the prevalence of brucellosis, using abattoir facilities, is important.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of antibodies against Brucella in slaughter cattle at Gauteng province, South Africa and to characterize isolates of Brucella spp.

Detection of Salmonella from animal sources in South Africa between 2007 and 2014.

Retrospective laboratory-based surveillance was conducted on Salmonella serotypes isolated from various animal species from 2007 to 2014 at the Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, South Africa. During the surveillance period, 1229 salmonellae isolations were recorded. Around 108 different serotypes were recovered from nine different food and non-food animal host species.

Epidemiology and characterization of Escherichia coli outbreak on a pig farm in South Africa.

An investigation of mortality of piglets through clinical signs, post-mortem, histopathology and bacteriological analyses revealed the causal organism to be Escherichia coli, mainly O149:K91:K88 which belongs to the enterotoxigenic biotypes. Molecular characterization and epidemiologic analysis elucidated it as shiga-toxin (ST) E. coli resistant to ampicillin, cefotaxime, tetracycline, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, tylosin and neomycin.

Salmonella contamination, serovars and antimicrobial resistance profiles of cattle slaughtered in South Africa.

Antimicrobial resistant Salmonella are among the leading causes of foodborne infections. Our aim was to determine Salmonella contamination during cattle slaughter in South African rural abattoirs (n = 23) and environmental samples. Furthermore, antimicrobial resistance patterns of the Salmonella isolates were determined.