Preventive Veterinary Medicine 115 (2014) 39–47 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Preventive Veterinary Medicine j ourna l h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/prevetmed Salmonella species in piglets and weaners from Uganda: Prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and herd-level risk factors Kokas Ikwap a,∗ , Joseph Erume a , David Okello Owiny a , George William Nasinyama a , Lennart Melin c , Björn Bengtsson c , Nils Lundeheim b , Claes Fellström b , Magdalena Jacobson b a College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda b Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7070, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden c National Veterinary Institute, 751 89 Uppsala, Sweden a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 16 December 2013 Received in revised form 1 March 2014 Accepted 10 March 2014 Keywords: Diversity Non-typhi Protective factors Drug susceptibility a b s t r a c t Non-typhoidal salmonellosis is of concern in humans in sub-Saharan Africa, and this is partly due to the high number of immunocompromised persons. Pork and pork prod- ucts could be among the sources of these non-typhi Salmonella spp. The aim of this study was to identify Salmonella spp. in piglets and weaners in northern and eastern Uganda, characterize their antimicrobial resistance patterns and determine herd-level risk factors. Fecal samples were collected from 465 piglets and weaners from 93 herds (49 and 44 from northern and eastern Uganda, respectively). In addition, information about the herd management and potential risk factors were collected. The fecal samples were cultured for the identification of Salmonella spp. The Salmonella spp. confirmed by serotyping were further characterized by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to 12 antimicrobials by broth microdilution. At individual level, the total prevalence of Salmonella spp. was 12% (12.2% in northern and 11.9% in eastern Uganda). At herd level, the total prevalence was 39% (43% in northern and 34% in eastern Uganda). From 56 samples with Salmonella spp., 20 serovars were identified including two serovars identified only by their antigenic formulae. The predominant serovars were S. Zanzibar, S. Heidelberg, S. Infantis, S. Typhimurium, S. Stanleyville, S. Aberdeen and S. Kampala. In total, 57% of the 53 Salmonella spp. analyzed, originating from 27% of the herds, were resistant to at least one antimi- crobial agent. The majority of drug-resistant isolates (60%) were from northern Uganda. Eight multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates were from northern Uganda and three MDR iso- lates were from eastern Uganda. Increased prevalence of Salmonella spp. was associated with feeding the young and adults separately as compared to feeding the young and adults together (p = 0.043, OR = 4.3; 95% CI 1.1, 17.38). Protective factors were “intensive” method of keeping the pigs versus “tethering and roaming” (p = 0.016, OR = 0.11; 95% CI 0.02, 0.64), “intensive” method versus “semi-intensive” method (p = 0.048, OR = 0.12; 95% CI 0.01, 0.96) ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +256 772 959675; fax: +256 414 554685. E-mail addresses: ikwap@vetmed.mak.ac.ug, kikwap@gmail.com (K. Ikwap). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2014.03.009 0167-5877/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.