Use of Isolation and Antibody Detection for Salmonella Assessment

Salmonella infections of swine are of concern for two major reasons. The first is the clinical disease (salmonellosis) in swine that may result, and the second is that swine can be infected with a broad range of Salmonella serovars that can be a source of contamination of pork products. The genus Salmonella is morphologically and biochemically homogeneous group of Gram-negative, motile, non-spore-forming, facultative anaerobic bacilli with peritrichous flagella (Griffith et al., 2006). According to their biochemical characteristics it is divided in two species Salmonella enterica and Salmonella bongori. Salmonella enterica is further divided in six subspecies. Regarding their antigenic structure of somatic (O), flagellar (H) and capsular (Vi) antigens they are divided in serovars. Traditionally the serovars of subspecies enterica, which account for more than 99.5% of isolated Salmonella strains, have names, while all the others are named by their antigenic formula only (Grimont and Weill, 2007). Final differentiation within serovars is carried out by phage typing, plasmid profiling, restriction endonuclease analysis and resistance patterns. Serovars Typhimurium, Derby, Saintpaul, Infantis, Heidelberg, Typhisuis and Choleraesuis may all occur in pigs (Taylor, 2006).