Incidence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella serotypes in southern Taiwan from 1978 through 1987.

A total of 3,269 Salmonella strains, isolated from patients suffering from salmonellosis, was divided into 43 different serotypes during the period between 1978 and 1987. The commonest ten serotypes in the order of prevalence were S. typhimurium (43.7%), S. muenchen (13.7%), S. panama (9.0%), S. krefeld (8.1%), S. bovis-morbificans (6.3%), S. derby (4.0%), S. anatum (2.7%), S. braenderup (1.6%), S. typhi (1.2%), and S. dumfries (0.7%). Norfloxacin was found highly effective against Salmonella isolates in vitro. Moxalactam and cefotaxime were more effective than cephalothin against strains tested. Nalidixic acid and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole inhibited 81-100% strains of Salmonella isolates, except S. bovis-morbificans and S. typhimurium. In general, S. typhimurium showed high incidence of multiple drug resistance. Among 1,430 strains of S. typhimurium, 158 isolates showed a uniquely high level resistance to a number of antimicrobial agents, including ampicillin, amikacin, carbenicillin, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, kanamycin, tetracycline and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. It was noted that all S. typhi isolates in this study were sensitive to all drugs tested.