Soft cheese and grilled chicken as a possible source of human salmonellosis with special attention to human risk factors

This work was designed to detect the presence of Salmonella species among patients with food poisoning manifestations in three central hospitals located in three cities (Sohag, Tema and Elmaragha) in Sohag Governorate and from foods consumed by the majority of patients as soft cheese and grilled chicken using microbiological, PCR method (using 16S rRNA specific primer for Salmonella species) and serological typing of Salmonella species, as well as risk factors related to Salmonella infection in human was identified based on data collected from the patients. The results illustrated that Salmonella species was detected in 9 (4.6%), 2 (2.2%) and 5 (4.2%) of the examined patients, soft cheese and grilled chicken respectively. Salmonella Typhimurium was the predominant serotype followed by S. Infantis, S. Enteritidis and S. Kentucky. Owing to the risk factors associated with infection; patients in age group ranged from15-25, males and peoples in contact with infected persons and animals were more susceptible to the infection. Public health education, rapid detection of infection, risk factors identification and collaboration between health and agriculture authorities are important to set a successful control strategy.