Quinolone resistance phenotype and genetic characterization of Salmonella enterica serovar Pullorum isolates in China, during 2011 to 2016

Background Pullorum disease, caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Pullorum (S. Pullorum), is one of the most important bacterial infections in the poultry industry in developing countries, including China. To examine the prevalence and characteristics of S. Pullorum, the Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) genotypes, fluoroquinolones resistance, and biofilm-forming abilities of S. Pullorum isolates were investigated, collected from 2011 to 2016 in China. Results Thirty S. Pullorum isolates collected from 2011 to 2016 were analyzed. Quinolones susceptibility testing showed that 90% of the isolates were resistant to the first generation of quinolines nalidixic acid, but the resistance rates to different fluoroquinolones agents were lower than 13.3%; for some there was even no resistance. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) showed that ST-92 was the dominating genotype, accounting for 90.0% of all S. pullorum strains. The remaining three isolates were of the new reported sequence type ST-2151. Interestingly, the Asp87Gly substitution in quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDR) of GyrA was only observed in the three strains of ST-2151, suggesting a potential correlation between Asp87Gly substitution and sequence type (p