Estimation of limit of detection of Salmonella typhimurium in artificially contaminated chicken meat by cultured-based and polymerase chain reaction techniques

The objective of this study was to develop Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) procedure for detection of Salmonella Typhimurium in artificially contaminated chicken meat. The experiments were conducted with various dilutions of Salmonella Typhimurium reference the American Type Culture Collection ATCC (ATCC13311TM 4.4*107) High concentration 4.4*103 Colony Forming Units (CFU)/ml, low concentration 4.4*102 CFU/ml, very low concentration 4.4*101 CFU/ml inoculated in chicken meat, in order to determine limits of detection (LOD), optimum incubation times 18 to 20 hours of pre-enrichment in Buffered Peptone Water (BPW 1%). Hence, cultural methods and DNA extraction were performed according to kits instruction. The microbiological cultural test was capable to detect 1.76 CFU/mL, whereas PCR examination was able to detect 0.18 CFU/ml of initial dilution of Salmonella Typhimurium inoculated in chicken meat. Interestingly, the results were achieved in a less time period than that of classical culture. The PCR technique is beneficial in the methodology for detection of Salmonella in chicken meat.