No abstract

In Chile, a country with an exceedingly high incidence of typhoid, untreated sewage is applied directly to fields where salad vegetables are cultivated. Water used for irrigation was examined for the presence of Salmonella typhi, by making use of the sewer-swab technique. S typhi was isolated in 8 (11%) of 76 irrigation samples examined from nonindustrial, polluted water. This supports the hypothesis that crops grown with water contaminated with feces are important vehicles in the transmission of S typhi in this endemic area. Since sewage treatment plants will not be available in Santiago in the near future, emphasis is being placed on devising alternative methods of irrigation and on growing vegetables that are cooked before being eaten.

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Molecular characterization of a total of 54 isolates of Salmonella typhi from Santiago, Chile, was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) after digestion of chromosomal DNA with three restriction endonucleases: XbaI (5-TCTAGA-3), AvrII (5-CCTAGG-3), and SpeI (5-ACTAGT-3). Thirteen of the 54 isolates were obtained from environmental sources (sewage and river water), and the rest were isolates from clinical cases of typhoid fever. Considerable genetic diversity was detected among the human isolates obtained in 1994, as evidenced by the presence of 14 to 19 different PFGE patterns among 20 human isolates, with F (coefficient of similarity) values ranging from 0.69 to 1.0 (XbaI), 0.61 to 1.0 (AvrII), and 0.70 to 1.0 (SpeI). A total of eight phage types were detected among these 20 isolates, with 50% possessing the E1 or 46 phage type. There was no correlation between PFGE pattern and phage types. Similar diversity was seen among 21 isolates obtained in 1983, with 17 to 19 PFGE patterns detected and F values of 0.56 to 1.0 (XbaI), 0.55 to 1.0 (AvrII), and 0.67 to 1.0 (SpeI). Comparison of these two groups of human isolates obtained 11 years apart indicated that certain molecular types of S. typhi are shared and are able to persist for considerable periods. A similar degree of genetic diversity was also detected among the environmental isolates of S. typhi, for which 10 to 12 different PFGE patterns were detected among the 13 isolates analyzed, with F values ranging from 0.56 to 1.0 (XbaI), 0.52 to 1.0 (AvrII), and 0.69 to 1.0 (SpeI). Certain molecular types present among the environmental isolates of S. typhi were also found among the human isolates from the same time period, providing evidence for the epidemiological link between environmental reservoirs and human infection.

In a search for Salmonella isolates in the environment in Chile in 1975, drug-susceptible strains of Salmonella panama were recovered for the first time from river water and vegetables in the vicinity of Santiago. Two to 3 years later, antibiotic-resistant S. panama began to appear in a variety of sources (meat, animals, vegetables, etc.), giving rise to a human epidemic that involved the entire nation. Of 139 clinical isolates studied, 7 were drug susceptible, 11 were resistant only to nitrofurans, and 3 were streptomycin, spectinomycin, and nitrofuran resistant; none of these 21 isolates harbored plasmid DNA. Most isolates (n = 107) were resistant to nitrofurans (chromosomal) and to streptomycin, spectinomycin, sulfonamides, tetracycline, and mercuric and tellurite salts; this multidrug resistance was encoded on a 218-kb plasmid classified in a number of strains as being in the IncHI2 group. From 1982 to 1993, 11 isolates acquired an additional self-transferable plasmid coding for resistance to any one of ampicillin (61 kb), ampicillin and trimethoprim (65 kb), ampicillin, trimethoprim, streptomycin, and sulfonamides (71 kb), ampicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin, and tetracycline (120 kb), or a nontransferable plasmid of approximately 6 kb encoding resistance to ampicillin or kanamycin. With the exception of ampicillin or ampicillin and trimethoprim resistance, S. panama isolates from foodstuffs, mainly pork meat products, and animals had resistance patterns that were the same as those found in clinical specimens. Remarkably, strains from goats and goat cheese and from shellfish isolated in particular rural regions were either drug susceptible or resistant only to streptomycin-spectinomycin encoded on a mobile genetic element and to nitrofurans. The report describes the arrival of a susceptible S. panama strain, its spread all over the country, and the evolution of progressively complex resistance patterns.