Abstract

Zinabu Bayu1 , Biruhtesfa Asrade1 *, Nigatu Kebede2 , Zufan Sisay2 and Yehualashet Bayu1

Currently, salmonellosis is one of the major food borne pathogen both in developing and developed countries. Humans encountered this problem by consuming raw or undercooked food especially of poultry and egg products. The objective of the study was to identify and characterize Salmonella species in trans-ovarian contaminated eggs purchased from local markets in Addis Ababa. The study was conducted by using a standard laboratory diagnostic procedure. Isolation of Salmonella species from eggs was done both in solid and liquid media, and among three hundred eighty four (384) clean and non-cracked eggs examined, twenty eggs (5.21%) were positive for Salmonella enteritidis using selinite broth and Rappaport vassilidies broth as liquid media and xylose lysine desoxycholate (XLD) agar, MacConkey, Salmonella Shigella agar as solid media. S. enteritidis positive eggs (n = 20) when subjected to biochemical test using lysine iron agar (LIA) identified eighteen (4.69%) positive and two (2) negative samples. In this research, some commercial eggs yielded a number of S. enteritidis. This can be attributed to different causes but the most important one is transovarian transmission which implicate the possibility of poor animal health in layer farms. Storage time/temperature play the most significant role for its multiplication.