Characterisation of recently emerged multiple antibiotic-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium DT104 and other multiresistant phage types from Danish pig herds.

A total of 670 isolates of Salmonella enterica were isolated from Danish pig herds, phage typed and tested for susceptibility to amoxycillin + clavulanate, ampicillin, colistin, enrofloxacin, gentamicin, neomycin, spectinomycin, streptomycin, tetracyclines, and trimethoprim + sulphadiazine. S enterica serovar typhimurium (S typhimurium) isolates resistant to ampicillin, streptomycin and tetracycline and three isolates of S typhimurium DT104, two from 1994 and one from 1995, were further tested for resistance against chloramphenicol and sulphonamide and analysed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using the restriction enzyme Xba I. Overall, 66 per cent of the 670 isolates were sensitive to all the antimicrobial agents tested. Eleven isolates of S typhimurium were resistant to ampicillin, streptomycin and tetracycline and also resistant to other antibiotics in different resistance patterns. Seven different multiresistant clones were identified. The most common clones were four isolates of DT104 and three isolates of DT193. Two of the three S typhimurium DT104 from 1994 and 1995 were sensitive to all the antimicrobials tested whereas the remaining isolate from 1994 was resistant to spectinomycin, streptomycin and sulphonamides. All three isolates showed PFGF profiles identical to the four multiresistant DT104 isolates. Compared with most other countries antimicrobial resistance among S enterica isolated from Danish pig herds is uncommon. However, several different multiresistant clones were found.