**1. Introduction**

Natural environments have been altered by the destruction of forests and habitats to expand habitable zones for humans. These changes expose humans and animals to infectious agents that were restricted to certain species and geographical areas. Furthermore, these changes cause an epidemiological, sanitary, and environmental rearrangement of diseases, especially those with zoonotic profiles, as in the case of salmonellosis [1].

*Salmonella* spp. is a bacterium with pathogenic characteristics often associated with food infections and outbreaks, with serious public health implications. Infections can affect people, livestock such as cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry, pets, and even wild animals. Concerning wild animals, the characteristic ubiquity of the bacterium also favors crosscontamination to domestic animals, especially in areas for livestock close to forests.

Epidemiologically, one of the main characteristics of *Salmonella* is its condition as a latent carrier [2]. Latency corresponds to a state in which the individual does not present clinical symptomatology, but continues eliminating the agent intermittently in the

feces. Thus, these asymptomatic latent carriers become natural reservoirs and, consequently, maintainers of the pathogen both in the food chain and in the environment.

Naturally, wild animals can be asymptomatic carriers of *Salmonella* spp., with the bacterium remaining in equilibrium with the intestinal microbiota. When these animals are kept away from their natural habitat, the resulting stress compromises their immune system and destabilizes the microbiota, leading to increased elimination of the pathogen in feces. Therefore, wild animals kept in captivity tend to have a higher prevalence of *Salmonella* spp. than free-living animals, possibly leading to outbreaks of salmonellosis in humans due to cross-contamination by serotypes of *Salmonella* spp. This scenario is even worse when the serotype involved is multidrug-resistant to antibiotics.

The maintenance of wild animals in captivity is a major public health concern, especially in the case of reptiles. We conducted a study with fecal samples of 30 tegu lizards born in captivity that were asymptomatic latent carriers of *Salmonella* spp., with nine serotypes with resistance to at least two antibiotics being isolated [3]. In another study using 31 snakes kept in captivity, 58% tested positive for *Salmonella* spp. and seven serotypes were isolated [4]. Some of the animals, both among the tegus and the snakes, tested positive for more than one serotype with different resistance profiles. In preserved forest areas, the prevalence of *Salmonella* spp. in wild animals is usually lower. Our research team sampled 518 free-living wild animals in forest fragments (388 mammals, 114 birds, and 16 reptiles) from 2015 to 2021 in four mesoregions of Bahia (north-central Bahia, south-central Bahia, Metropolitan Salvador, and south Bahia), Brazil, and observed that only three mammals (unpublished data) and one bird [5] tested positive for *Salmonella* spp.

Notably, the manifestation of salmonellosis is associated with factors inherent to the etiological agent, the host, and the environment. The correlation between the three will determine the impacts on biosecurity and persistence of the bacterium in ecosystems, food, and carriers. The prevention and control of this pathogen demand interdisciplinary and international cooperation based on shared data to ensure a more effective approach to outbreaks.
