US Poultry and the US Poultry Foundation announce the completion of a funded research project at the USDA-ARS Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit, Athens, Ga., in which the researchers developed powerful tools for detecting
Salmonella.
Project #F043: Rapid Molecular Pathotyping of Major Salmonella enterica Serotypes Based on Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Adenylate Cyclase (cyaA) Gene (Dr. Michael J. Rothrock, Jr. and Dr. Jean Guard, USDA-ARS Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit, Athens, Ga.)
Detecting
Salmonella in various stages of the food production system is complicated by the vast number of Salmonella serotypes and the variation of characteristics even within a serotype. Simple methods are needed by the poultry industry to track isolates of
Salmonella through the production system so that more effective interventions can be implemented.
Dr. Michael Rothrock and Dr. Jean Guard recently completed a research project in which they developed reagents and protocols to rapidly detect and identify some of the major serotypes of
Salmonella and differentiate different isolates within a serotype. Utilising single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of two different genes, they were able to detect 89–100% of a panel of
Salmonella isolates from environmental, poultry production and processing settings. SNPs are discreet areas in a gene that vary between isolates of similar bacteria and can be used to identify those bacteria. This work demonstrates the power of using SNPs to quickly and accurately distinguish between isolates of
Salmonella and can serve as a valuable tool for
Salmonella control in the poultry industry.
Source: US Poultry and Egg Association