Molecular characterization of Salmonella spp directly from snack and food commonly sold in Lagos, Nigeria.

Food borne Salmonella infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. A total of 200 food samples commonly sold in Lagos, Nigeria comprising raw and cooked meat as well as meat products and spoilt meat were analysed for the presence of Salmonella spp using REVEAL serology kit, culture methods employing RPVA (Rappaport Vassiliadis agar), SSA (Salmonella-Shigella agar) and BSA (brilliant sulphite agar) and PCR method for direct detection from samples using primer salm3/4 and ST11/ST15 sets. Using the REVEAL serology kit, 74% of the samples were positive for Salmonella spp, while culture methods showed only 19% to be Salmonella spp.

Molecular typing of Salmonella spp isolated from food handlers and animals in Nigeria.

A total of 61 isolates of Salmonella spp (made up of 26 clinical isolates and 20 food handler and 15 animal isolates) were typed by RAPD-PCR for the purpose of screening for epidemiologically related isolates. The RAPD -PCR typing method used comprised six primers namely 787, 797, 784, 1254, RAPD 1 and RAPD 2 but 784 and 1254 did not produce discriminatory patterns and so were dropped. From the 61 strains, RAPD fingerprinting with primers RAPD 1, 2 produced 22 and 24 fingerprint patterns respectively.