Global genomic surveillance of Salmonella in the environment: assessing virulence and antimicrobial resistance at scale.

Genomic analysis of 1,399 Salmonella isolates reveals widespread antimicrobial resistance and virulence gene conservation in environmental reservoirs globally, including early colistin resistance detection.

• Why it matters: Understanding environmental Salmonella is crucial because these reservoirs contribute to pathogen evolution and the emergence of resistant strains that threaten public health, yet they are underrepresented in genomic data.
• What they did: Researchers sequenced 54 isolates from India and combined them with global genomes, analyzing phylogenetics, pangenomes, resistance genes, virulence factors, and plasmid diversity to assess ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
• The result: Findings show environmental Salmonella maintain core virulence genes while rapidly acquiring resistance and plasmids, emphasizing the importance of environmental surveillance within a One Health approach to detect emerging threats early.