An immunoconcentration-PCR assay to detect Salmonella in the environment of poultry houses

An immunoconcentration-PCR assay was developed for the rapid and specific detection of Salmonella. This assay was evaluated against a conventional bacteriological method for the detection of Salmonella from environmental swabs of poultry houses. The 120 samples investigated were pre-enriched in phosphate buffered peptone water and Salmonella was separated by an immunoconcentration process using an automated system (VIDAS bioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France) prior to PCR. The specificity of the assay was high as no false-positives were found. The sensitivity of the assay was 70%. The correlation between the ICS-PCR assay and the bacteriological method was 84%.