MH, ELH, MK and RJL wrote the manuscript. MK and ELH contributed equally.”
“Background Salmonella is a gram-negative, facultative

anaerobic, flagellated bacterium. It is the pathogenic agent of salmonellosis, a major cause of enteric illness and typhoid fever, leading to many LY2228820 price hospitalisations and a few rare deaths if no antibiotics are administered. Salmonella outbreaks are linked to unhygienic food preparation, cooking, reheating and storage practices. The bacterium can be isolated from raw meat and poultry products as well as from milk and milk-based products [1]. The detection of Salmonella therefore remains a highly important issue in microbiological analysis for food safety and standards. Because the nomenclature for the Salmonella genus is at times confusing, this publication will follow the current literature [2, 3]. The CDC [3] distinguishes PXD101 in vitro two Salmonella species (or subgenera): S. enterica and S. bongori. S. enterica is further divided into six subspecies, of which S. enterica subsp. enterica is the most clinically significant, causing 99% of Salmonella infections. In the present study we are concerned with its two main serovars: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (group D) denoted S. Typhimurium, and Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis

(group B) denoted S. Enteritidis, which are the most commonly isolated Salmonellae from food-borne outbreaks. Identification of the disease-causing

Salmonella serovars is currently a lengthy process, and its initial isolation from food samples can SYN-117 be difficult as the bacteria can be present in small numbers and many closely related bacteria may be found within the same sample [4]. For this reason, pre-enrichment steps are required Succinyl-CoA for all samples [5, 6]. The current accepted method for isolation of Salmonella from foodstuffs is a well established procedure – ISO 6579, laborious and time-consuming, taking up to 5 days to complete [7, 8]. The most widely-used method used to characterise Salmonella into its subspecies is the Kauffman-White serotyping system [9], based on the variability of the O, H and Vi antigens [9–11]. Apart from being arduous, this method can not identify a small number of S. enterica samples that lack either the O antigen alone or both the O and the H antigens [12]. Therefore there is a need for fast, sensitive and specific “”in the field”" detection, using nucleic acid-based technologies such as molecular beacon-based real-time PCR, to reduce the time needed to complete the assay, but also improve the level of accuracy and reliability. In this study, molecular beacons [13–15] and real-time PCR technology are combined to develop a fast, sensitive, clear-cut method of detection of Salmonella spp.