Biofilm building properties of salmonella on the poultry farm

A very important aspect of biofilms in primary poultry production is that they can be a potential harbour for salmonellae as well as Campylobacter jejuni in the field and are often mentioned in respect to enhancing the resistance and virulence of salmonella. It was demonstrated that in Norwegian fish feed factory settings certain salmonella strains persist for years and are capable biofilm producers. Interestingly these salmonella connected to biofilm have been proven to originate from a few limited clones from these settings. Contrary to persisting isolates, isolates with limited property to form biofilm were more often isolated from the fish feed factory setting and as the crucial difference showed a remarkably more diverse clonal variety. We wanted to understand whether the same observation could also be made for farm-isolated salmonella serotypes with high importance for food safety. Do especially hard to eradicate serotypes such as S. paratyphi B dtartrate positive warrant an in-depth study of their biofilm forming properties? Can a link be found between the serotypes found in chicken production, their biofilm building property and their clonal variety? Hence, we have taken a variety of strains from various serotypes of Salmonella enterica with major impact on the poultry industry in Germany and Hungary and examined these for their biofilm-building properties in a laboratory setting. To understand the common origin of the selected strains the results were linked with epidemiological data, such as pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and lysotyping.