Detection of Salmonella infection in slaughter cattle using meat juice and serum

Abstract

Monitoring for Salmonella in slaughter cattle is important to enable targeted control measures to be applied on problem farms and at the abattoir. The aim of this study was to determine whether meat juice could be used as much as serum to identify slaughter cattle with a high prevalence of infection. Samples of meat juice & serum were taken from 100 slaughter cattle and comparisons were made between the results of individual Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests on serum and meat juice. The ELISA tests showed a statistically significant Serum mean optical density (O.D.) with meat juice mean optical density (O.D.) from seven animals. All but one of the seven positive individual sample serum O.D. and sample/positive control (S/P) ratio results correlated significantly with the results of the meat juice O.D. ELISA. The results show a generally good correlation between serological results of individual serum and meat juice samples in slaughter cattle. Thus, ELISA could be used to flag up potentially hazardous Salmonella contaminated meat from slaughter cattle or herds which are more likely to be in need of improved Salmonella control. This can then be confirmed by bacteriological sampling at the abattoir or farm level and a control plan imposed.