Epidemiology and Antibiogram of Isolated from Waterfowl Slaughterhouses in Taiwan.

Introduction: Laryngeal swab samples collected from three waterfowl slaughterhouses in central Taiwan were cultured and suspected isolates of were identified by API 20NE and 16S rDNA PCR.

Material And Methods: Serum agglutination was used for serotyping, and antimicrobial susceptibility was tested.

Results: Seventy-six isolates were detected, and the prevalences in the ducks and geese were 12.3% (46/375) and 8.0% (30/375), respectively. The positive isolation rates were 65.6% for all arriving waterfowl, 76.0% for birds in the holding area, 1.6% for defeathered carcasses, but zero for degummed carcasses. A PCR examination detected in the slaughtering area frequently. Serotype B was dominant in both duck (34.8%) and goose (46.7%) isolates, but the wide serotype distribution may very well impede vaccination development. All isolates were resistant to colistin, and 79.7% were resistant to more than three common antibiotics.

Conclusion: The results proved that most ducks had encountered antibiotic-resistant in rearing, which suggests that the bacterium circulates in asymptomatic waterfowl. It is worth noting that most waterfowl farms were found to harbour , and contaminated slaughterhouses are a major risk factor in its spread. Effective prevention and containment measures should be established there to interrupt the transmission chain of .