Human-chicken interaction

The study was conducted in the resource-poor settings of rural central Tanzania. These areas are characterized by high human-chicken interactions, poor hygiene and sanitation services, and poor water supply. The study was conducted to determine the public health associated with keeping indigenous chicken in high human-chickens interaction of which screening of the chickens for Salmonella was one of the study objectives. Whole-genome sequencing of Salmonella isolates from the chickens was done to establish the serovars circulating in the area, the horizontally acquired replicons carried by these isolates, the virulence genes and antimicrobial resistance genes carried by these serovars. This information is important to ascertain the public health risk associated with keeping indigenous chickens in such settings under the scavenging system.