Detection of Salmonella spp. from some wild captive herbivores in Iran and determination of serogroup, antibiotic susceptibility and presence of invA gene in the isolated strains

Salmonella spp. are zoonotic enteric bacteria able to infect humans, livestock and wildlife. the aim of thisstudy was to investigate the prevalence of salmonella (spp.) and to determine antibiotic susceptibility,serogrouping and presence of inva gene (salmonella invasion gene a) in the detected strains in wildcaptive herbivores in iran. the fecal samples of 103 animals from 8 different species were evaluated forpresence of the salmonella. results indicated that 9.7% of animals were positive for salmonella, all of thesestrains belonged to d serogroup, also all the salmonella strains harbored inva gene. in vitro antibioticactivities of 10 antibiotic substances against the isolates were determined by disc diffusion test. the highestrate of resistance was against amoxicillin (100%), tetracycline (80%), neomycin (60%), lincospectin(50%) and enrofloxacin (40%), resistance to furazolidone wasn’t observed. in conclusion, these speciescan act as a reservoir for salmonella. also, since the study was conducted in some parts of iran, a moreaccurate conclusion needs more distributed sampling. to our knowledge this is the first study which reportsthe fecal shedding of salmonella from cervus elaphus, capra aegarus, oryx leucoryx, ammotragus lerviaand lama glama in iran.