Full Length Research Paper

Using molecular techniques for rapid detection of Salmonella serovars in frozen chicken and chicken products collected from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Moussa, I. M¹*, Gassem, M. A.², Al-Doss, A. A¹, Mahmoud W. A. Sadik³ and Abdel Mawgood, A. L.¹

¹Center of Excellence in Biotechnology Research, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460 - Riyadh King Saudi Arabia.

²College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King saud University, P.O. Box 2460 - Riyadh King Saudi Arabia.

³Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affair, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: imoussa1@ksu.edu.sa or moussaihab@gmail.com. Tel: 00966560749553. Fax: 00966-14678456.

Abbreviations: SMT, Standard microbiological techniques; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; RV, Rappaport- Vassiliadis; PCR-RV, PCR assay combined with Rappaport- Vassiliadis selective broth; PCR-NS, PCR-non selective test; MPCR, multiplex PCR; BPW, buffered peptone water; XLD, xylose lysine desoxycholate agar; TSB, tryptic soya broth; EDTA, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid.

Accepted 14 January, 2010

   Abstract

The current study was aimed to investigate the incidence of different Salmonella serovars in chicken products either from local or imported source. A total of 152 samples of chicken and chicken products were collected from different retail establishment markets in Riyadh, KSA including 38 local whole frozen chickens, 62 imported whole frozen chickens, 22 whole poultry eggs and 30 local chicken cuts samples and examined by standard microbiological techniques (SMT). Salmonella isolation revealed a total percentage of 5.92%; chicken cuts revealed a high incidence among the examined samples (10%), followed by local frozen chickens and imported frozen chicken samples with incidence of 7.89 and 4.83%, respectively. For this experiment, the whole chicken eggs were negative for Salmonella species by SMT. Salmonella enteritidis was dominating among the recovered Salmonella serovars, followed by Salmonella typhimurium, while only two strains of Salmonella agona and Salmonella newport were isolated. The PCR assay combined with Rappaport- Vassiliadis (RV) selective broth (PCR-RV) for the detection of Salmonella species in the collected field samples revealed the same positive samples directly from the imported frozen chickens and whole chicken eggs which gave negative results by SMT. Thus PCR-RV technique is rapid, time saving and applicable to detect Salmonella serovars directly from chicken samples.

Key words: Frozen chickens, Salmonella serovars, diagnosis, enrichment, selective, polymerase chain reaction.