SHORT COMMUNICATION Characterization of antimicrobial resistant Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium isolates from animal and food in Southern Italy Anna Giannina Perugini & Maria Rosaria Carullo & Assunta Esposito & Vincenzo Caligiuri & Federico Capuano & Giorgio Galiero & Giuseppe Iovane Accepted: 29 March 2010 / Published online: 17 April 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract In the last two decades, the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, among them Salmonella, has become a serious health hazard worldwide, and specifically the high incidence of multidrug resistance has been encountered widely in many European countries. This study examines the antimicrobial supsceptibility of Salmonella enterica strains Typhimurium and Enteritidis isolated in Campania and Calabria region (Southern Italy) from animal and food of animal origin. The relationship of antibiotic resistance phenotype and the presence of some resistance genes has been also investigated. As espected, our results showes that resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphonamides and tetracycline is common, although resistance to other antibiotics (i.e.:nalidixic acid) and other resistance patterns occur. The genetic resistant patterns have been partially described for this food-borne pathogen but efforts are needed to realize the complete characterization of antimicrobial resistance genes. Keywords Salmonella . PCR . Gene . Antibiotic resistance Introduction Salmonella is one of the most important genus that encompasses pathogenic serovars responsible for gastrointestinal infections in humans, and contaminated food from livestock (poultry, swine, ovine and buffaloes) is one of the best known source of infection. The transmission of these bacteria from food of animal origin to humans has been largely demonstrated (Swartz 2002; Haeghebaert et al. 2003;O’Brien and De Valk 2003), specifically for Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and Typhimurium, consider as the two major etiologic agents of food-borne salmonellosis in human. Vet Res Commun (2010) 34:387–392 DOI 10.1007/s11259-010-9358-5 A. G. Perugini (*) : A. Esposito : V. Caligiuri : G. Galiero : G. Iovane Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno, Portici, Italy e-mail: annagiannina.perugini@cert.izsmportici.it M. R. Carullo : F. Capuano Centro pilota per la tipizzazione delle Salmonelle nella Regione Campania, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno, Portici, Italy