Seroprevalence of Salmonellosis in Intensive Poultry Farms and Associated Risk Factors in Wolaita Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia

School of Veterinary Medicine, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia

*Corresponding author: Gelan Dule Dahesa, School of Veterinary Medicine, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia, Phone: +251982607591; E-mail: [email protected]

Received Date: December 30, 2024

Published Date: January 22, 2025

Citation: Dahesa GD, et al. (2025). Seroprevalence of Salmonellosis in Intensive Poultry Farms and Associated Risk Factors in Wolaita Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia. Mathews J Vet Sci. 9(1):60.

Copyrights: Dahesa GD, et al. © (2025).

ABSTRACT

Salmonellosis is a significant foodborne disease worldwide, with poultry and poultry products being major sources of infection. A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2022 to May 2023 at Wolaita Sodo town, Southern Ethiopia with the objectives of determining seroprevalence of salmonellosis, and identifying its associated risk factors. The sample size was determined based on an expected prevalence of 50% and a confidence level of 95%, because of the absence of a previous study on the seroprevalence of salmonellosis in the study area. The farm was purposively selected according to the potential of poultry production, availability of chickens and the willingness of the owner take samples from his birds and simple random sampling was used to select chickens. Methodology includes serological testing and a structured questionnaire to farm owners to gather information was used. The serum slide agglutination test was performed on the sample collected from the farm, which were subsequently organized, coded, and entered into an Excel spreadsheet. These data were then subjected to analysis using STATA. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data and compute prevalence. The Chi-square test was used to determine the association between the occurrence of salmonellosis and the variables. Out of 384 collected samples, 30.7% were positive for Salmonellosis. A statistical analysis revealed a significant association between infection rates and factors such as age, feed type, and farm size of the poultry has a significant association (p<0.05), but the housing system has no significant association (p> 0.05). Salmonellosis was most commonly prevalent in farm with large flock, at 65%, followed by medium farm 30.9% and small scale 6.3%. In conclusion the salmonellosis in study area was moderate. Should be invest in research and development activities to understand the factors contributing to the prevalence of salmonellosis in poultry farms in the study area. This can include studying the impact of feed types, farm sizes, and management systems on disease prevalence and identifying effective control measures.

Keywords: Intensive Poultry Farms, Risk Factors, Salmonellosis, Seroprevalence.