Occurrence of salmonellae in animal feed ingredients in Saudi Arabia.

Of 346 samples of animal feed ingredients (144 complete feed, 88 feed concentrate, 42 calcium carbonate, 30 meat meal, 29 fish meal, and 13 mixed meat and bone meal), 42 (12.13%) were contaminated with salmonellae. The rate of Salmonella contamination varied according to the nature of the feed sample. Seven (53.84%) of the mixed meat and bone meal, 14 (48.27%) of the fish meal, 12 (13.63%) of the feed concentrate, 7 (4.86%) of the complete feed, and 2 (4.76%) of the calcium carbonate samples contained salmonellae. The 49 Salmonella isolates represented 18 serotypes; the 5 most frequent serotypes in decreasing order were S lille, S new-haw, S livingstone, S kentucky, and S typhimurium. The 4 most common somatic serogroups encountered were C1, E2, B, and C3.