A simplified biochemical system to screen Salmonella isolates from poultry for serotyping.

The 24 most frequently isolated paratyphoids from poultry, along with Salmonella gallinarum and Salmonella pullorum, plus strains of Arizona, Citrobacter, Edwardsiella, Escherichia, Klebsiella, Prteus, Pseudomonas, Serratia and Shigella were inoculated into triple sugar iron (TSI) and lysine iron (LI) slants and into six fermentation broths which were numbered: 1 (dextrose), 2 (lactose), 3 (sucrose), 4 (mannitol), 5 (maltose), 6 (dulcitol). All the salmonella cultures (except S. pullorum) gave a 1, 4, 5, 6 code which means they produced acid, and in most cases gas, in dextrose, mannitol, maltose and dulcitol, but no acid or gas in lactose and sucrose. S. pullorum gave a 1, 4 code. All non-salmonella cultures gave a fermentation pattern different from the 1, 4, 5, 6 pattern of paratyphoids and S. gallinarum. Therefore, this six sugar system can be successfully used in the selection of suspect salmonella cultures for specific typing. Results from a miniaturized system (Minitek) were the same as those from the standard tube method for the carbohydrate fermentation tests for all cultures tested.