Durda Slavic

Animal Health Laboratory, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.                            

AHL Newsletter 2025;29(3):4.

At AHL Salmonella spp. isolates are routinely forwarded to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) for serotyping. This testing frequently takes 3-4 weeks or longer if environmental Salmonella spp. are submitted.  To provide our clients with alternative and faster turn-around-times, the Bacteriology section at AHL recently validated the Check&Trace Salmonella serotyping method (CTS). This is a PCR-based method that can be used to differentiate more than 100 different Salmonella serotypes that are most frequently isolated from poultry environmental samples, as well as from clinical samples in all animal species. Most relevant clinical Salmonella serotypes that can be differentiated by CTS are shown in  (Table 1).

If faster turn-around-time (TAT) for serotyping is needed to include/exclude any of the serotypes from (Table 1), this test can be requested. The test can only be performed on pure bacterial cultures of isolates already identified as Salmonella spp. The current price per isolate is $81, and the test code is ‘bssero’. If culture and/or bacterial identification are needed, extra charges will apply.

For additional information, including the expanded list of Salmonella spp. serotypes, please contact ahlbact@uoguelph.ca [1].

Table 1.  Some of the Salmonella serotypes differentiated by Check&Trace test.