Isolation of Salmonella in Commercial Chicken Feeds in Ilala District

Salmonella is one of important hazardous pathogens causing salmonellosis in both humans and animals. In Tanzania, commercial chicken farming is a rapidly growing industry and salmonellosis is a serious problem. A study on Salmonella was conducted in commercially produced chicken feeds from feed mills in Ilala, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between October 2015 and January 2016. The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of Salmonella contamination in commercial chicken feeds. Feed samples were collected from a total of 197 randomly selected feed bags of different types from 3 feed mills to estimate the contamination prevalence. Cultural and biochemical tests were performed for the presence of Salmonella in the samples. The overall prevalence of Salmonella in the study was 29.4%. The prevalence of Salmonella in broiler starter mash, broiler grower mash, broiler finisher mash and layers mash were confirmed to be 30.8%, 38.1%, 33.3% and 21.1 respectively and prevalence of Salmonella in batches 1 and 2 were 27.8% and 30.5% respectively. Prevalence of Salmonella contamination in feed mills A, B and C, was 22.2%, 48.1% and 14.7% respectively. Significantly higher (p = 0.001) prevalence of Salmonella contamination was seen in feed mill B when compared to the other two. The presence of Salmonella in commercial chicken feeds in Ilala presents a contamination hazard for both humans and Salmonella-free flocks, and therefore, calls for improvement of hygienic processing and handling of feeds for effective control measures