Optimized culturing and nucleic acid-based methods for the detection of Salmonella enterica in poultry environments.

The main objective of this trial was to set up a series of assays following quantified inoculation of Salmonella samples in 2 initial enrichment methods to ultimately determine the most effective and fastest detection method for recovery of Salmonella in a poultry environment matrix. Samples were randomly split into 2 different containers containing either buffered peptone water (BPW) + yeast extract, or tetrathionate broth (TT) with added iodine and Brilliant Green solution 0.1%. A frozen stock Salmonella culture was thawed and serially diluted 10-fold to inoculate 100 µL of the dilution into the enriched samples. The samples were incubated at 42 and 37°C, respectively, for 24 h and secondarily enriched in modified semi-solid Rappaport Vassiliadis (MSRV) incubated at 42°C. All samples then were reincubated under the same conditions. After secondary enrichment, the samples were streaked onto Chromogenic agar/ XLT4 bi-plates and incubated under the same conditions. After initial inoculation and each 24-h incubation, a portion of the enriched samples was analyzed using a real-time PCR assay. The results of this trial indicate that recovery of Salmonella in a culture-based assay may be enhanced by up to 3 logs by using the TT as the initial enrichment media compared with BPW. The incorporation of MSRV as a secondary cultural selective media after the TT gave the best recovery of Salmonella. These data indicate that considerable time can be saved by using TT as an initial media for Salmonella recovery.