Veterinaria Italiana, 47 (2), 183‐190 © Istituto G. Caporale 2011 www.izs.it/vet_italiana Vol. 47 (2), Vet Ital 183 Contaminated commercial dehydrated food as source of multiple Salmonella serotypes outbreak in a municipal kennel in Tuscany Marco Selmi (1) , Simonetta Stefanelli (2) , Stefano Bilei (2) , Rita Tolli (2) , Luigi Bertolotti (3) , Paola Marconi (2) , Stefano Giurlani (1) , Pier Giorgio De Lucia (1) , Gianfranco Ruggeri (1) & Ambrogio Pagani (1) Summary The authors describe a large outbreak of canine salmonellosis in a municipal kennel in Tuscany. During the outbreak, 174 samples of ‘diarrhetic’ and ‘normal’ faeces and two batches of commercial dehydrated dog food were cultured for pathogenic bacteria. The results of 25, out of a total of 41 dogs (60.9%) revealed at least one faecal sample as being positive for Salmonella; incidence per sampling ranged from 12.5% to 34%. Nine of 10 samples of dehydrated food were positive. Ten totally different serotypes were isolated from dry food and faeces: the results of the pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis referred to similarity between the Salmonella Montevideo, Muenster and Worthington isolates recovered from both the food and canine faecal samples. Keywords Canine, Dog, Italy, Kennel, Mantel test, PFGE, Pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis, Salmonella, Salmonellosis. Introduction Salmonella organisms are primarily motile, non‐spore forming, Gram‐negative aerobic bacilli of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Over 2 500 serotypes of Salmonella have been associated with both human and animal disease (9). The subclinical carrier state of Salmonella is common in dogs and is frequently caused by the ingestion of contaminated food or carrion, or coprophagia (2, 15). On the contrary, clinical cases are extremely rare, but can be observed in puppies and in kennel populations. These cases can exhibit fever (40°C‐41.1°C), anorexia, diarrhoea, bloody diarrhoea, abdominal pain and abortion (14). Dogs are able to shed the organism in their faeces for six weeks or more, continuously during the first week and intermittently thereafter (14) and asymptomatic dogs can serve as sources of salmonellosis for other dogs and for humans. Salmonella is commonly isolated in dog kennels and the administration of contaminated food is the most important source of introduction of Salmonella infection. The diet used in the kennels can include unprocessed or raw dog food, a home‐made diet or dehydrated food. Raw meat used for dog food is generally considered to be an important risk factor in Salmonella infection. The meat used for the production of diets can originate from several sources, including human food or products that are no longer deemed suitable for human consumption. (1) U.F. Sa nità Pub b lic a Ve te rina ria , Azie nd a Sa nita ria Lo c a le 2 d i Luc c a , Via d i Tig lio , C a rra ia , 55061 Luc c a , Ita ly m .se lm i@ usl2.to sc a na .it (2) Istituto Zo o p ro fila ttic o Sp e rime nta le La zio e To sc a na , via Ap p ia Nuo va 1411, 00178 Ro me , Ita ly (3) Dip a rtim e nto d i Pro d uzio ni Anim a li, Ep id e m io lo g ia e d Ec o lo g ia , Fa c o ltà d i Me d ic ina Ve te rina ria Unive rsità d e g li Stud i d i To rino , Via Le o na rd o d a Vinc i, 44, 10095 G rug lia sc o (TO ), Ita ly