Abstract

Non- typhoidal Salmonellae are one among the four key causes of foodborne diarrhoea worldwide. Poultry and poultry products are considered one of the main sources of Salmonella infection in man. Hence the study was undertaken to study the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in retail chicken sold in central Kerala. Two districts belonging to central Kerala, Thrissur and Ernakulam were selected for sample collection. The isolation of the organism was done using pre-enrichment in buffered peptone water, enrichment in Rappaport Vassiliadis Salmonella enrichment broth followed by selective plating using Xylose Lysine Deoxycholate (XLD) agar. The prevalence of the organism was detected in 20 per cent of the samples. The invA gene which is a conserved virulence gene in Salmonella was targeted for the molecular detection using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All the positive isolates generated amplicons for the gene.

Keywords : Salmonella spp., Prevalence, Conventional culture, invA, PCR