Research Article
Omar B Ahmed, Atif H Asghar, I
Abstract
Conventional culture methods for the isolation and identification of food borne bacterial pathogens are rather sensitive and quite inexpensive, but at the same time they are labor-intensive and time-consuming. Molecular techniques are more rapid and highly sensitive for identification of food pathogens. This study was carried out to evaluate a 12 hour PCR method for detection of Salmonella in food samples. The results showed that out of 150 food samples, 32 (21.3%) were positive by culture, 35 (23.3%) were positive by PCR, the sensitivity of PCR was 100% while specificity was 97.5%. The study concluded that the 6-h enrichment followed by PCR was rapid, simpler method that allowed the detection of Salmonella spp. within a maximum of 12 h.