Salmonella enteritidis

Salmonellosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases. The major factor in the success of Salmonella spp as virtually universal pathogens is their ability to adapt to almost any kind of host. Salmonella-contaminated food products are a major source of human infection. Control programs based on serological monitoring and isolation of Salmonella aim not only toward the reduction of infection prevalence, but also could serve as valuable tools to change routines to decrease food contamination.

Salmonella enteritidis (SE) is an important pathogen of poultry and has been isolated from broilers, breeders and commercial egg-laying flocks. Bacteriological identification of positive birds is difficult because of the intermittent excretion of the organism. The presence of antibody does not always signify infection, but is indicative of previous exposure.

The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has shown utility in the detection of antibody to Salmonella in poultry, and is particularly useful in large-scale monitoring of flocks for Salmonella enteritidis infection.