Surveillance

• Abattoir
• Animal Clinical Isolates
• Feed
• Human clinical Isolates
• On-Farm
• Retail

Animal Clinical Isolates

The surveillance of Animal Clinical Isolates program relies primarily on veterinary diagnostic submissions collected by veterinarians and/or producers and received by provincial animal health laboratories across the country. These isolates are passively forwarded by provincial animal health laboratories to the OIE reference Salmonella Typing Laboratory at the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (Guelph, Ontario), where they are serotyped, susceptibility tested, and some additionally phagetyped. Unlike our surveillance of Human Clinical Isolates program, all isolates received by provincial animal health laboratories are not necessarily forwarded to the Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses, with the exception of the provinces of Ontario and Québec. Coverage may therefore vary considerably between provinces. Isolates from Québec are serotyped by the Laboratoire dexpertise en pathologie animale du Québec before being shipped. The objectives of this component are to assess the occurrence of AMR resulting from veterinary therapy, and to provide early detection of emerging AMR issues including resistance to new compounds and new multiple drug resistance patterns. This component was initiated in 2002.

Feed

Salmonella isolates received from the CFIA feed program are now being included for susceptibility testing.  This data will be reported in the 2007 annual report.

Human Clinical Isolates

Since 2003, the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has been receiving human Salmonella isolates from provincial public health and reference laboratories for phage typing and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. As of 2005, over 9500 isolates have been tested and included in CIPARS reports. Information accompanying these isolates includes the date the isolates were received, age, gender, province and city of the case, serovar, and may include outbreak identification number.

The number of isolates forwarded by each province varies. All laboratories forward all of the S. Typhi and S. Newport isolates to the NML. The more populated provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, forward all isolates received from the first to the fifteenth of each month, while the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island forward all human Salmonella isolates received throughout the entire surveillance period.

The objectives of the Human Clinical Isolates component of CIPARS are to determine individual, multiple drug resistance, and antimicrobial resistance patterns for all isolates. Data is presented for the three most frequently isolated serovars in Canada (S. Enteritidis, S. Heidelberg, and S. Typhimurium), in addition to S. Newport isolates due to past outbreaks involving multiple drug resistant strains. Information is also presented for S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi because of their severe disease manifestations in humans. All other serovars are presented together under the category of “Other Serovars”.

In order to get a better understanding of the issues surrounding antimicrobial resistance in humans, comparisons of resistance patterns across Salmonella strains in humans, animals and food of animal origin is carried out. Additionally, CIPARS carries out analysis of antibiotic drug sales in pharmacies across the country to look for trends in antibiotic consumption.