K. LINGARAJA, B.S.M. RONALD, RITA NARAYANAN, V.S. VADIVOO, N. KRISHNAKUNIAR AND B. rvIURALIMANOHAR
Abstract
Poultry is one of the most important reservoirs of Salmonella that can be transmitted to humans through the food chain. The association of eggs with human Salmonella enteritidis outbreaks has become an issue with serious international public health and economic consequences. Salmonella enterica serovar enteritidis and more recently Salmonella enter/ca serovar Heidelberg are the two organisms of most concern associated with eggs. In this paper a total of 110 table eggs were collected in North Chennai city retail outlets and Salmonella was detected in 3 (2.73%) samples by a combination of conventional culture technique and Polymerase Chain Reaction targeting the repeat sequence. The PCR product was sequenced and the BLAST analysis showed homology with Salmonella enteritidis subspecies enterica serovar Heidelberg. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that isolate I clustered differently from the other isolates.