Prevalence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. in large game animals intended for consumption: Relationship with management practices and livestock influence S. Dı ´az-Sa ´ nchez a, *, S. Sa ´ nchez b , S. Herrera-Leo ´n b , C. Porrero c , J. Blanco d , G. Dahbi d , J.E. Blanco d , A. Mora d , R. Mateo a , I. Hanning e , D. Vidal f a Instituto de Investigacio ´n en Recursos Cinege ´ticos IREC, Ronda de Toledo s/n (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain b Laboratorio de Enterobacterias, Servicio de Bacteriologı´a, Centro Nacional de Microbiologı´a, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28220 Madrid, Spain c Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET), Servicio de Vigilancia de Zoonosis de Transmisio ´n Alimentaria y Resistencia a Antibio ´ticos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain d Laboratorio de Referencia de E. coli (LREC), Departamento de Microbiologı´a y Parasitologı´a, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, Spain e Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA f Departamento de Ciencias Me ´dicas, Facultad de Medicina, Edificio Polivalente, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Camino de Moledores s/n, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain 1. Introduction Bacterial food-borne zoonotic infections are the most common cause of human intestinal disease in many countries. Three major bacterial food-borne agents (Sal- monella spp., Campylobacter spp. and Escherichia coli) Veterinary Microbiology 163 (2013) 274–281 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 30 April 2012 Received in revised form 17 December 2012 Accepted 18 December 2012 Keywords: Prevalence Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli Salmonella spp. Campylobacter spp. Large game animals Management A B S T R A C T Although wild ruminants have been identified as reservoirs of Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC), little information is available concerning the role of Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. in large game species. We evaluated the presence of these pathogens in faeces (N = 574) and carcasses (N = 585) sampled from red deer (N = 295), wild boar (N = 333) and other ungulates (fallow deer, mouflon) (N = 9). Animal sampling was done in situ from 33 hunting estates during two hunting seasons. Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. strains associated with human campylobacteriosis were infrequently detected indicating that both pathogens had a limited zoonotic risk in our study area. The overall STEC prevalence in animals was 21% (134/637), being significantly higher in faeces from red deer (90 out of 264). A total of 58 isolates were serotyped. Serotypes O146:H- and O27:H30 were the most frequent in red deer and the majority of isolates from red deer and wild boar were from serotypes previously found in STEC strains associated with human infection, including the serotype O157:H7. The STEC prevalence in red deer faeces was significantly higher with the presence of livestock (p < 0, 01) where high densities of red deer (p < 0.001) were present. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the occurrence of Salmonella spp. and STEC in carcasses of large game animals. Furthermore, this study confirmed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) that cross contamination of STEC during carcass dressing occurred, implying the likelihood of these pathogens entering into the food chain. ß 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 926 295450; fax: +34 926 295451. E-mail addresses: sandra.diaz@uclm.es, sandra.dsan@gmail.com, sdiazsan@utk.edu (S. Dı ´az-Sa ´ nchez). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Veterinary Microbiology jou r nal h o mep ag e: w ww .els evier .co m/lo c ate/vetm ic 0378-1135/$ – see front matter ß 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2012.12.026