en ميکروبيولوژي Microbiology پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background</strong>: S<em>Salmonella</em> is the most important source of food-borne infections around the world. Human salmonellosis is also caused by the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetable salads contaminated with <em>Salmonella spp</em>. We aimed to detect <em>Salmonella spp</em>. in hamburgers, vegetable salads, and cream-filled pastries from various sources in Mazandaran and assess their pathogenicity and antimicrobial resistance.</div> <strong>Materials and methods</strong>: A total of 90 samples, i.e., hamburgers, vegetable salads, and cream-filled pastries (30 samples of each), were randomly collected. Biochemical and serological tests were performed to detect the <em>Salmonella spp</em>. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed by the disc diffusion method and the virulent genes were examined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All the examined <em>Salmonella</em> serovars in this study showed positive amplification for the virulence genes <em>invA</em>, <em>spv</em>, and <em>viaB</em>. <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results</strong>: <em>Salmonella spp</em>. were detected in 54 of the 90 samples based on biochemical tests. Of these, 46 isolates (85.2%) were recovered by the 16S-23S rRNA PCR test, of which 19 (41.4%) represented the <em>S. typhimurium</em> serotype, 15 (32.7%) represented the <em>S. enteritidis</em> serotype, and 2 (4.4%) represented the <em>S. typhi</em> serotype. These <em>Salmonella</em> serotypes (19 S. <em>typhimurium</em>, 15 S. <em>enteritidis</em>, and 2 S. <em>typhi</em>; 36 in total) were sensitive to all the tested antibiotics: Ampicillin, 22/36 (61.11%); Streptomycin 22/36 (61.11%); Cefotaxime 23/36 (63.88); Gentamycin 36/36 (100%), and Tetracycline 36/36 (100%). However, a few of these serotypes exhibited slight resistance to ampicillin (4/36; 11.11%) and cefotaxime 2/36 (5.55%).</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion</strong>: These results would greatly help in understanding the prevalence of virulence genes and antibiotic sensitivity among <em>Salmonella </em>serovars in hamburgers, vegetable salads, and cream-filled pastries.</div> Hamburger, Vegetable salads and Cream-filled pastries, Salmonella, antimicrobial resistance, virulence gene, PCR 9 18 http://rmm.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-931-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mansoureh Taghizadeh m.taghizadeh004@gmail.com 10031947532846008567 10031947532846008567 No Food Quality Control Laboratory, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Behzad Javadian bjavadian@mazums.ac.ir 10031947532846008568 10031947532846008568 Yes Amol Faculty of Paramedics, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Alireza Rafiei Rafiei@mazums.ac.ir 10031947532846008569 10031947532846008569 No Department of Immunology, Molecular and Cell Biology Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences School of Medicine, Sari, Iran. Azadeh Taraghian a.taraghian90@gmail.com 10031947532846008570 10031947532846008570 No Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran Mahmood Moosazadeh mmoosazadeh1351@gmail.com 10031947532846008571 10031947532846008571 No Assistant professor, Health Sciences Research center, Addiction Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran