Molecular Detection of Virulence Genes of Salmonella Agona Isolated from Diarrheic Cats in Al-Anbar Province, Iraq

Ismail, Ola Adnan and Abdullah, Asmaa Hamoody (2026) Molecular Detection of Virulence Genes of Salmonella Agona Isolated from Diarrheic Cats in Al-Anbar Province, Iraq. World's Veterinary Journal. 631 - 639. ISSN 23224568

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Abstract

Salmonella infections are a major cause of foodborne infection in both humans and animals. Some serotypes are capable of inducing severe clinical manifestations, including gastroenteritis, septicemia, and abortion. The present study aimed to identify, isolate, and detect Salmonella Agona in cats with diarrhea in Al-Anbar Governorate, Iraq, and to evaluate the antimicrobial resistance profiles of the recovered isolates. Between November 2024 and May 2025, 100 fecal samples were collected from cats of different breeds presenting with diarrhea at veterinary clinics in Iraq. These samples were processed using established culture methods, including pre-enrichment in buffered peptone water followed by selective enrichment in tetrathionate broth. The enriched samples were then cultured on selective and differential media, including xylose lysine deoxycholate (XLD) agar and Salmonella-Shigella (SS) agar. For isolates identification, biochemical analyses, including catalase, indole, methyl red, Simmons citrate, oxidase, urease, lactose fermentation, triple sugar iron test, and phenylalanine, were performed, and the automated VITEK®2 test was used to confirm the results. The polymerase chain reaction targeted the invA gene to identify Salmonella species, followed by sequence analysis. Eventually, additional virulence genes were identified, including Salmonella enterotoxin (stn) and Salmonella outer protein E (sopE). The current results demonstrated that 4 of the samples (4 out of 100) were positive for Salmonella Agona. Antibiotic susceptibility testing against 16 antimicrobial agents demonstrated that the isolates were resistant to eight antibiotics (50), namely amoxicillin, streptomycin, cefotaxime, oxytetracycline, doxycycline, tetracycline, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and gentamicin. The virulence gene results indicated that 2 out of 4 isolates (50) possessed the sopE gene, whereas only 1 isolate (25) carried the stn gene. The current findings indicate that Salmonella Agona was not prevalent among cats presenting with diarrhea; however, the existence of highly virulent, multidrug-resistant strains represented a vital public health concern for both humans and animals. © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Feline; invA gene; Polymerase chain reaction; Salmonella Agona; Virulence gene
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions:	World's Veterinary Journal (WVJ)
Page Range:	631 - 639
Journal or Publication Title:	World's Veterinary Journal
Journal Index:	Scopus
Volume:	16
Number:	2
Publisher:	Scienceline Publication
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.54203/scil.2026.wvj60
ISSN:	23224568
Depositing User:	Dr. Alireza Sadeghi
URI:	https://eprints.science-line.com/id/eprint/1684

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