Detection of multiple naturally occurring Salmonella serotypes from commercial broiler carcasses with conventional methods

Abstract

AbstractMany laboratories sampling foods for Salmonella are interested only in presence or absence of Salmonella, so only one colony may be selected. The objectives of this study were to use two selective enrichment broths and two selective agar plating media for Salmonella recovery from naturally contaminated broiler carcass rinsates and evaluate these media combinations on Salmonella serotypes recovered from each carcass. Broiler carcasses (n = 52) from a commercial processing plant prior to chilling were rinsed with buffered peptone water and after incubation subcultured to gram‐negative and tetrathionate, and after inoculation to Rappaport Vassiliadis broth which was incubated and then streaked onto plates of Brilliant Green Sulfa and Xylose‐Lysine‐Tergitol‐4 agar. On 11/49 positive carcasses, both plating media yielded the same serotypes; for the other 38 positive samples different serotypes were found on the different plating media. Enrichment and plating media combinations influence the serotypes recovered and demonstrates bias even in a limited study such as this.