Aim
This study investigated occurrence of Salmonella in faecal sludge from public toilets in Nigeria, and genetic relatedness of strains which have been reported to cause human infection across Africa.
Methods and Results
The study collected 150 human sludge from public toilets, and identified Salmonella through culture and PCR. Isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Draft sequences were compared with sequence data from Enterobase and Genbank. Twenty-four (16.0%) of sewage samples were positive for Salmonella [CI95 (10.2- 21.8)]. S. Give (sequence type (ST) 516), S. Seftenberg (ST-14), and S. Chester (ST-411) were the most prevalent serovars found in 45.8%, 16.7%, and 16.7% of samples, respectively. Most of the isolates were sensitive to the antimicrobials tested, only one isolate of S. Derby showed resistance to ampicillin and cefazolin. Notably, 91.7% of the strains had the aac (6)-Iaa gene, and point mutations in parC, gyrA and acrB. S. Chester showed genetic relatedness with strains from Benin Republic and South Africa.
Conclusion
There is genetic relatedness of present strains and those associated with human infections in Africa.