Epidemiological characteristics of Salmonella carriage and influencing factors in people engaged in service industry in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 2021−2022

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of Salmonella carriage in people engaged in public service at different fields in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from 2021 to 2022, explore the correlation between demographic factors and seasonal temperature, and provide evidence for the prevention of Salmonella infection and transmission in healthy population.

Methods In health examination, anal swabs of people engaged in public service were collected in Yulin from 2021 to 2022 for the isolation of Salmonella. The detection rates of Salmonella in people engaged in different food services were analyzed by χ² test and trend χ² test. Correlation and regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between Salmonella detection rate and temperature, and multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of Salmonella detection.

Results  From 2021 to 2022, the detection rate of Salmonella was 1.86% in people engaged in public service in Yulin, and a total of 50 924 persons were surveyed, and they were divided into three groups according to the types of works. The positive rates of Salmonella in the three groups of food processing, food sales and general service were 2.17%, 1.71% and 1.48%, respectively. In general, the Salmonella carrying rate decreased with the decrease of the food exposure level. The univariate analysis showed that there were gender, age, occupation and season specific differences in Salmonella detection rate. The detection rates of Salmonella increased with age. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that being man, older age and season were the influencing factors for the high Salmonella detection rate in people engaged in food processing, older age and season were the influencing factors for the high Salmonella detection rate in people engaged in food sales and being man and season were the influencing factors for the high Salmonella detection rate in people engaged in general service.

Conclusion The Salmonella carrying rate in people engaged in public service was high in Yulin from 2021 to 2022, and the Salmonella carrying rate had obvious seasonality and population specific characteristics. People with high frequency of food material contact are more likely to carry Salmonella, posing high risk for the spread of Salmonella from animal or food to human. Health surveillance and health intervention should be further strengthened in people engaged in public service, especially in those with frequent food material contacts, to reduce the probability of the spread of pathogens from animal to food to human, and the early identification and warning of food safety hazards needs further improvement.