Detection of Escherichia coli and Salmonella in chicken rinse carcasses

Purpose - This paper seeks to optimize a multiplex PCR in order to detect the incidence of Salmonella and Escherichia coli (E. coli) in chicken carcasses, eliminating a pre-culture enrichment step and the pathogen isolation. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 30 chicken rinse carcasses were analysed by standard microbiological methods, and the isolates were identified by biochemical and serological tests. The results were compared with those obtained by a multiplex PCR using validated primers targeting for invA and lamB genes of Salmonella and E coli, respectively. Findings - Microbiological analysis showed the prevalence of Salmonella in 14 out of 30 chicken carcasses. The same rinse samples were also analysed by multiplex PCR, which allowed the simultaneous detection of both bacteria directly from the chicken rinse water microbial community. Originality/value - The optimized mPCR detected enterobacteria. directly from the rinse samples, a complex matrix food, in one workday. There was 100 per cent agreement of the conventional microbiological analysis with those results obtained by multiplex PCR.