Salmonellosis in equine medicine is of clinical and public health significance. There are no published studies on nosocomial Salmonella outbreaks in South Africa. Electronic medical records of patients admitted to the equine veterinary academic hospital between October and December 2016 were reviewed. The SOPs for hospital infection, prevention and control measures pre-, during, and post-outbreak, and possible zoonotic transmission were collected using structured questionnaires. Salmonella was isolated from 25% of patients, including a white rhinoceros. Salmonella Typhimurium was the most common serotype isolated from patients (42%), stables (72.2%), and clinic areas (84%). Hospitalisation duration (p = 0.017) and repeated faecal samples (p = 0.011) were significantly associated with Salmonella infection, but there was no association between syndromic clinical presentation of salmonellosis and Salmonella infection. Four students reported symptoms of salmonellosis, and one was hospitalised with a positive faecal culture. The importance of heightened biosecurity around high-risk patients cannot be over-emphasised. A continuous surveillance programme of both patients and the environment is essential to identify early lapses in infection prevention and control measures, and patient care should be optimised to reduce the length of hospitalisation. Syndromic clinical signs of salmonellosis cannot always be used to identify Salmonella-positive patients as previously suggested, emphasising the importance of a surveillance programme.
Shaik et al. (Sun,) studied this question.