Salmonella isolation from poultry samples constitute a huge challenge due to the high background flora. This could cause the isolation process to be less accurate, time consuming, and more laborious, which eventually might lead to incorrect decisions made by the decision makers. This study aimed to perform immunomagnetic separation (IMS) technique using Dynabeads® anti-Salmonella after the pre-enrichment step to enhance the performance of the method, reduce the efforts, save the time, and reduce the cost. Fifty-seven samples of chicken (Caracas chicken, Shawarma and seasoned chicken) were collected from the local markets from different brands and were tested following two protocols; Protocol number one (Gold standard method) and Protocol number two (Enhanced method). The results of the two protocols showed total agreement in either the positive samples or the negative ones. Out of 57 samples, 32 samples were identified as positive for Slamonella using both protocols and 25 samples were identified as negative using both protocols as well. Protocol two had the advantage of being much clearer, faster and higher confidence in the detection and isolation of Salmonella. Samples with low background flora were not included in this study and thus further study may be required. Applying this method for samples with low background flora may reduce the testing steps by removing the selective enrichment step, however, this requires further validation studies.
Mohammed B. Al-Angari, Section Head, Microbiology Lab, Saudi Food and Drug Authority
