May 18, 2007

Danish researchers develop fast detection of salmonella in meat

Researchers from Denmark have conceived a 12-hour test for detecting Salmonella in meat, according to a report in the May 2007 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the researchers have developed a 12-hour DNA-based method for detecting salmonella bacteria which were minced with meat samples following 8 hours of pre-enrichment. Results were then compared to a reference culture method which previously tested 100 minced meat and poultry samples following 24 hours of pre-enrichment and showed relative accuracy and sensitivity of 99 percent and specificity of 100 percent.

The study, according to the researchers, successfully demonstrated that the optimized 12-hour PCR method for salmonella detection produced results comparable to those of the reference culture method with artificially inoculated pork meat and poultry samples.

Salmonella is one of the main causes of food-borne illnesses worldwide and detection of the bacteria has proven to be costly and laborious which takes 5 days to get results. In recent studies real-time PCR technology has shown to offer several advantages in regard to speed, detection limit and cost.