2006 Volume 23 Issue 3 Pages 156-164
Both the incidence and number of patients with food-borne diseases caused by Salmonellastill rank very high among total food-borne diseases, although both have been decreasing in recent years. The need for a simple and rapid alternative method of Salmonellatesting is very high in the food industry because the conventional culture method includes two enrichment procedures and takes more than five days to isolate and identify a typical colony of Salmonella from samples. VIDAS is an enzyme-linked fluorescent assay (ELFA) system that consists of a fully automated device and its reagents. In this study, we compared two protocols of the VIDAS method with the conventional culture method for detecting Salmonella using 40 food samples. Performances of protocols “ VIDAS ICS + plate ”and “ VIDAS SLM AFNOR validated method” both showed higher sensitivity than the conventional culture method. These protocols were also excellent in terms of reduced time-toresults in addition to showing higher sensitivity. We also compared SMID 2, a new chromogenic agar plate for selective isolation of Salmonella, with DHL agar, a traditional agar plate for Salmonella testing. On SMID 2, typical colonies of Salmonella were much easier to identify (mainly by its characteristic color), and the frequency of appearance of typical colonies by bacteria other than Salmonella was much lower, although the Salmonella recovery rate did not differ between the two media.
