Prevalence of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella on Ready-to-Eat Betel Leaves (Paan) and in Water Used for Soaking Betel Leaves in North Indian Cities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of Salmonella in the water used by Paan vendors in 11 North Indian cities. The analysis of 776 water samples and 120 samples each of preprocessed Paan (from vendor stock) and ready-to-eat Paan collected from Bareilly revealed that four of the ready-to-eat Paan and 34 of the water samples contained multidrug-resistant Salmonella strains. The isolates belonged to five different serovars, i.e., Salmonella Newport (1), Salmonella Paratyphi B (1), Salmonella Teko (1), Salmonella Virchow (3), and Salmonella Saintpaul (32), and could also be classified into 18 different resistotypes. All of the isolates were sensitive to cotrimoxazole, and 97.27% of the isolates were sensitive to chloramphenicol, imipenem, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and neomycin. Multidrug resistance (against 5 to 18 antibiotics) was common, particularly for nalidixic acid (65.79%), cephalothin (68.42%), cefoperazone (57.89%), sulfamethizole (52.63%), furazolidone (65.79%), kanamycin (68.42%), doxycycline (50.00%), and cefotaxime (44.74%). Bacteriological analysis of 16 Salmonella-positive and 23 Salmonella-negative samples revealed that the presence of Salmonella in water samples had a negative correlation (r = -0.35) with coliform counts and a positive correlation (r = 0.55) with nonlactose fermenter counts. We determined that centrifugation was a rapid and cheap method for concentrating large samples of Salmonella. The presence of multidrug-resistant strains of zoonotic Salmonella on ready-to-eat Paan is a public health concern and may be one of the factors responsible for the hyperendemic status of salmonellosis in India.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella isolates from livestock and food samples, in and around Kolkata, India

“…To the best of our knowledge, S. Idikan isolates has not been earlier reported from India from any samples, although it was previously reported from poultry litter and food in Chad, Africa [20]. Isolation of S. Teko, another rare serovar was reported earlier only from India, in association with betel leaves [21]. Worldwide Salmonella serovars frequently isolated from poultry include S. Enteritidis, S. Infantis and S. Kentucky, [4,22,23] while common serovars isolated from cattle include S. Typhimurium, S. Montevideo and S. Dublin [4,16,22].…”

An assessment of the microbiological safety of fresh whole-leaf herbs from retail premises in the United Kingdom with a focus on Salmonella spp.

“…This is in contrast to a study of paan leaves carried out in India (Singh et al . ), in which multi‐drug resistant Salmonella strains were isolated from 4 of 120 paan leaf samples and 34 of 776 samples of water used for soaking the leaves. The findings in this study may reflect the relatively low use of antimicrobials in the countries of origin in contrast to that in more industrialized countries where antimicrobials are more extensively used in food animal production as well as human medicine.…”

Occurrence of ingression of Salmonella spp. in Betel leaf (Piper betle L.)

“…in betel leaf earlier. Singla et al (2009) and Singh et al (2006) have reported Salmonella spp. in betel leaf of Indian origin and Husna et al (2015) reported Salmonella spp.…”