Abstract
Objective: To investigates the prevalence of Multi-Drug Resistant Salmonella species in various food and water samples at Hyderabad city of Pakistan.
Methodology: A total of 210 different food and community water samples were examined for the presence of Salmonella bacteria. The samples were categorized into four broad categories of cooked foods, uncooked foods, fresh fruit juices and drinking water. The isolated species were screened for the phenotypic expression of antibiotic resistance using Kirby- Baur disc diffusion method.
Results: The maximum Salmonella recovery (85%) was from fresh fruit juice samples, followed by drinking water samples (32%). 29% of the uncooked samples were found to contain Salmonella, while none of cooked foods had Salmonella. The chi-square test statistic for independence was calculated to be 43.3571 and p<0.00001, suggesting a significant dependence of Salmonella prevalence upon the type of food. All (100%) the isolates were resistant to β-lactam group of antibiotics while 80.9% were resistant to macrolide antibiotics. The Salmonella isolates displayed 30% resistance against sulfonamide group of antibiotics. Overall 9% of the total Salmonella isolates were found to be Multi-Drug Resistant strains.
Conclusion: The prevalence and occurrence of Salmonella depends on the type of food. The presence of MDR Salmonella in uncooked foods like meat, poultry and fresh fruit juices as well as drinking water can serve as transmission vehicle for pathogens like Salmonella typhi in this region.

Key words: Salmonella, Multi-Drug Resistance, Fresh fruit Juice, Water samples, cooked and un-cooked food samples.