Prevalence of salmonella in food samples of dehradun region

Salmonella is one of the most common causes of food-borne disease. For this reason, the number of rapid test methods for Salmonella has grown rapidly in the last decade. PCR has become powerful tools for the detection of pathogens in food. Many different PCR assays have been developed for Salmonella, all with different specificities, accuracies, and detection limits. 20 different food samples (goat intestine, poultry intestine, coriander leaves, mint leaves and pastry) were collected from different locations of Dehradun city. For isolation of enteric pathogens, the samples were enriched and selective isolation was carried out. The results of staining, biochemical characteristics and selective isolation indicated the prevalence of Salmonella sp. in 20% of samples. Other enteric isolates were identified to be Proteus sp. on the basis of Phenyl Pyruvic Acid (PPA) and Triple Sugar Iron (TSI) test. Further, the enrichment broth was processed for PCR assay by using Salmonella Detection Kit, Which contains the amplification of Salmonella sp. specific gene invA (284 bp) using specific primers. The amplified product was detected by agarose gel electrophoresis. The results of PCR indicated the same prevalence (20%) of Salmonella sp. therefore, results of the bacteriological test correlated with PCR findings. Hence, the present study concludes considerable prevalence of Salmonella sp. in food sample which was confirmed both bacteriologically and PCR assay.