Mars Global Food Safety Center.
Salmonella cells proliferate in an agar plate.
The conventional scientific process for identifying bacteria’s family – known as serotyping – can be time consuming. For salmonella, it used to take three days, and in some cases more than 12 days to assign a final classification for complex servovars.
Researchers from Cornell, the Mars Global Food Safety Center in Beijing, and the University of Georgia have developed a method for completing whole-genome sequencing to determine salmonella serotypes in just two hours and the whole identification process within eight hours.
Their research was published Feb. 24 online in the Journal Food Microbiology.
Determining salmonella’s serotype makes it easier for food safety sleuths to find the source of bacterial contamination, which can occur in a wide range of foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat, cereal, infant formula and pet food.
“As the food supply chain becomes ever more global and interconnected, the opportunity for food to become contaminated with salmonella increases,” said lead author Silin Tang, Ph.D. ’15, senior research scientist in microbial risk management at the Mars Global Food Safety Center in China. “In the fast-moving world of food manufacturing, where rapid identification and response to salmonella contamination incidents is critical, developing a more efficient pathogen identification method is essential.”
Conventional serotyping has been at the core of public health monitoring of salmonella infections for a half-century, Tang said. But long turnaround times, high costs and complex sample preparations have led global food safety regulators, food authorities and public health agencies to change to whole-genome sequencing methods for pathogen subtyping.
All 38 salmonella strains – representing 34 serotypes – assessed in this study were accurately predicted to the serotype level using whole-genome sequencing.
This is important news for the food industry, as very few laboratories can conduct classical serotyping, said Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. ’97, the Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety and a Cornell Institute for Food Systems faculty fellow.
“In some countries,” Wiedmann said, “it can take up to two days to even get the suspected salmonella to a certified lab.”
With whole genome sequencing, he said, the new state-of-the-art test relies on simple equipment. “For the food industry, processing plants are in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “Now you can conduct testing in a lab that’s close to the food processing plant.”
In the United States, salmonella bacteria cause approximately 1.3 million infections, more than 26,000 hospitalizations and more than 400 deaths annually, according to annual estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Different salmonella serotypes often come from different places, said Wiedmann, who explained the process through an example: chicken pot pie.
“Where does the salmonella come from?” he said. “You have carrots, peas, obviously chicken, and spices. If you have salmonella enteritidis – that’s usually associated with chicken – then you look for and track down the source of the chicken. If you have salmonella virchow, the serotype usually associated with food in southeast Asia, then you want to track down the spices from there. … Serotyping provides food safety scientists with a priority list of where to look.”
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Salmonella
- Salmonella poisoning alert issued to anyone planning a BBQ this weekend
Health safety experts are urging Brits to properly clean their BBQs before use this weekend - or potentially risk salmonella poisoning
- Danish Salmonella outbreak traced to English beef
Imported beef is to blame for a Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 50 people, according to Danish officials. Since March, 51 people in
- White-coated snacks from Florida Walmart, Target, Dollar General recalled over salmonella
What is Salmonella? What are the symptoms? "Salmonella are bacteria that make people sick," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its fact page. Salmonella can make people ill with diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps which can last from ...
- Researchers target spermidine production to combat emerging drug resistance in Salmonella
Food-borne diseases like typhoid, caused by Salmonella Typhimurium, are a severe threat to public health, especially in India. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics has allowed this bacterium to become resistant,
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Salmonella
[google_news title=”” keyword=”salmonella” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Salmonella serotypes
- Publisher’s Platform: Basil Salmonella Outbreak is likely 38.6 times larger than reported
Only a small proportion of all Salmonella infections are diagnosed and reported to health departments. It is estimated that for every reported ...
- USDA Finalizes Policy to Protect Consumers from Salmonella in Raw Breaded Stuffed Chicken Products
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced its final determination to declare Salmonella an adulterant in raw breaded stuffed chicken products when they exceed a specific threshold (one ...
- Neogen® Launches New Molecular Method for Detection of Two Salmonella Serotypes
The Neogen MDA2SEST was granted approval by the AOAC ® Research Institute Performance Tested Methods SM (PTM) Program and assigned PTM Certification No. 122302. The PTM Program provides independent ...
- Neogen® Launches New Molecular Method for Detection of Two Salmonella Serotypes
The product joins several other next-generation assays, including Salmonella, E. coli O157 (including H7), Listeria and Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter, STEC gene screen (stx and eae), and ...
- Neogen® Launches New Molecular Method for Detection of Two Salmonella Serotypes
The Neogen MDA2SEST kit is used with the Neogen Molecular Detection System for rapid and specific detection of two Salmonella serotypes, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serotype Enteritidis ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Salmonella serotypes
[google_news title=”” keyword=”salmonella serotypes” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]