By Abbey Drew
University of Guelph researchers have found a way to improve existing surveillance measures for preventing Salmonella outbreaks.
The research team included Dr. Shu Chen, senior research scientist, manager at the Agriculture and Food Laboratory (AFL) and associate graduate faculty in the Department of Food Science, and Dr. Carlos Leon-Velarde, AFL supervisor of food microbiology and adjunct professor in the Department of Food Science. Their goal was to implement an advanced molecular tool to detect complex Salmonella serotypes in poultry samples.
Poultry is a major reservoir for Salmonella, which has over 2,600 known serotypes. Serotypes are groups of bacteria or viruses within a single species that have the same types of surface antigens.
This new method for Salmonella detection, called CRISPR-SeroSeq, can detect numerous serotypes in a single sample. Chen says that it will help improve monitoring practices and outbreak investigations.
Read the full article on the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance's website: U of G researchers apply new method for detecting Salmonella bacteria.