TDK conference 2011

The Salmonellas are such bacteria, occurring around the world, which’s numerous serotypes cause zoonosis. They are Gram-negative, rod-shaped, flagella possessing, facultative anaerobic microorganisms.

In numerous cases was zoonosis caused by Salmonella excreted by reptiles reported. From this point of view the most endangered groups are: the children and people who are in immunesuppressed state (for example people with AIDS or who have gone through organ transplantation). The most frequent symptoms for humans are high fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

During our research our goal was the exploration of the Salmonella serotypes in shops and exhibitions in Budapest, as well as the determination of the infected ratio of snakes and lizards.

For our inspections we took swab samples from the cloaca of reptiles. All in all we collected 173 samples from 63 different reptile species. After the taking of the samples we put them into buffered peptone water for pre-enrichment and incubated them at 41°C for 24 hours. As the next step we took over a drop with a syringe into the MSRV medium and after another 24 hours incubated at 41°C, with inoculation loop we spread them onto Rambach and Drigalski Agar. Before evaluation we incubated yet again for 24 hours on 41°C. In the May of 2011 we exchanged the Drigalski Agar to XLD Agar, and we executed the continuation of the incubation as it was written down beforehand.

From the taken samples we got a positive result in 63 cases, respectively in an additional 7 cases it was revealed after serotyping that although the samples showed a positive result what we found was not Salmonella genus. According to the serotypings we could isolate 36 different serotypes. The serotypings were done according to the Kauffmann-White schema.

Based on our results we can declare that the Salmonella already has numerous serotypes present at Budapest, among the home-bred and the imported animals equally and that their number in the future will definitely grow thanks to the commerce, increasing the threat of zoonosis development.