A total of 283 Salmonella Typhimurium strains isolated from cases of human infections and non human sources, were examined for antimicrobial susceptibility and the incidence of resistance was 38% and multiple resistance (to three or more antimicrobials) was 15%. All 43 multidrug-resistant strains (MDR) and 13 susceptible ones were characterized by phage typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The strains encompassed 14 definitive phage types (DT), three were untypable (UT), and 18 atypicals or reaction does not conform (RDNC), which belonged to 21 PFGE patterns, A1-A21. The predominant phage types were DT49, DT193, and RDNC and two strains belonging to DT 104 and 104b were also identified. The most commum PFGE patterns were A1 and A8. Analysis by PFGE and phage typing demonstrated that the most of the MDR were multiclonal and association among multiresistance, phage typing, and PFGE patterns was not so significant.
Key words: Salmonella Typhimurium -phage types -multidrug-resistantSalmonella is one of the most important causal agents of foodborne illness. It can be isolated from a variety of foodstuff such as raw meats, poultry and poultry products, milk and milk products (Gorman & Adley 2004). The zoonotic nature of Salmonella infections is well established and the observed increase in human cases has been associated with high levels of infections in animal husbandry, mainly in pigs and poultry (Seyfarth et al. 1997).The Salmonella genus comprises more than 2500 serotypes (Popoff 2001), most of which are considered potential human pathogens, but only a reduced number of them have been associated with human infections (Uzzau et al. 2000). In developed countries, outbreaks of nontyphoidal Salmonella infections have been caused mainly by serotypes Enteritidis and Typhimurium (Seyfarth et al. 1997, Davis et al. 1999, Kariuky et al. 1999.S. Typhimurium is a common cause of human salmonellosis in many countries , Leegaard et al. 2000, Esaki et al. 2004, Martinez-Urtaza et al. 2004, Gorman & Adley 2004. It represents the most common serotype isolated from humans and animals in the United States (Bender et al. 2001, Rabatsky et al. 2004) and the second in the United Kingdom (Martinez-Urtaza et al. 2004).Studies reported in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, have also indicated that S. Typhimurium is the second most common serotype isolated from human sources (Tavechio et al.1996) and one of the most frequent from non-human sources (Taunay et al. 1996). The extensive use of antimicrobials in human and veterinary medicine has led to an increase in multidrug resistance strains (MDR) (Threfall et al. 1993, Glynn et al. 1998, Davis et al. 1999, Rabatsky et al. 2004. Fernandes et al. (1992) of S. Typhimurium strains isolated from humans presented high levels of resistance to antimicrobial agents (5-14 marks) and most were isolated in hospital environments, which have been considered the principal vehicle of epidemic MDR S. Typhimurium strains (Riley et al. 1984, Fernandes et al. 1992, Asensi et al. 1995, Kariuky...