Identification of the At-Risk Population(s) For Shedding Multi Drug-Resistant Salmonella in Harvest-Ready Cattle

Findings: Salmonella is widely prevalent in cattle populations of the Texas High Plains in that it was recovered from 53.0% of all samples. Typically, healthy cattle have the highest prevalence and carry the greatest concentration of this organism. Most importantly, the serovars recovered are unlike those associated with either clinical disease in animals or people; no S. Typhimurium or S. Newport were recovered. Moreover, the most common susceptibility/resistance pattern was susceptible to all antimicrobial drugs. In addition, resistance to 3 or more drugs was rare with only 5.7% of isolates falling into this category. In particular, the co-resistance pattern of ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline was only identified 1.5% of isolates. Even though Salmonella is readily recovered from harvest-ready cattle in Texas, the variants are of limited public-health consequence.