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Title: Comparative study of shell swab and shell crush methods for the recovery of Salmonella from shell eggs

Author
item KAWAMOTO, SHINICHI - NATL FOOD RES INST, JAPAN
item Musgrove, Michael
item KAWASAKI, TOMOMI - NATL FOOD RES INST, JAPAN
item KAWASAKI, SUSUMU - NATL FOOD RES INST, JAPAN
item BARI, LATIFUL - NATL FOOD RES INST, JAPAN
item INATSU, YASUHIRO - NATL FOOD RES INST, JAPAN

Submitted to: UJNR Food & Agricultural Panel Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2008
Publication Date: 10/15/2008
Citation: Kawamoto, S., Musgrove, M.T., Kawasaki, T., Kawasaki, S., Bari, L., Inatsu, Y. 2008. Comparative study of shell swab and shell crush methods for the recovery of Salmonella from shell eggs. UJNR Food & Agricultural Panel Proceedings.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Egg associated Salmonella Enteritidis outbreaks have been a major cause of foodborne illness in Japan as well as in the United States and several European countries. Researchers have been attempting to develop a rapid and highly sensitive method for the recovery of microorganisms from shell eggs. Such recovery methods are also useful for evaluating the efficacy of newly developed shell egg disinfection techniques. Methods that involve rinsing, swabbing, and crushing shells etc. have been reported. In Japan the swab method is officially recommended for the recovery of microorganisms from shell eggs. However, this method has not been compared to other recovery methods. This study was designed to 1) determine the microbial contamination levels of commercial shell eggs in Japan using the swab (SW) or crush (CR) methods; 2) compare the SW method and CR method for the recovery of Salmonella from laboratory inoculated shell eggs; 3) to determine the sampling effects on the viability of Salmonella, the populations recovered from shell eggs by SW or CR method was evaluated with quantitative real-time PCR assay, Live/Dead BacLightTM bacterial viability assay and chemiluminescence assay together with conventional plating method. CR with recovery buffer at 37 C was the most effective recovery method. A proposal has been generated to make this the official method for Japan’s National Food Research Institute.