Occurrence of Salmonella spp. in samples from pigs slaughtered for consumption: A comparison between ISO 6579:2002 and 23S rRNA Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization method

Contamination of pork products during slaughter represents an important vehicle for Salmonella spp. dissemination to humans. Salmonellosis poses an important risk for public health and presents an important economic issue to pork producers. This study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of this foodborne pathogen in pork carcasses and risk tissues (ileum, ileocolic and mandibular lymph nodes and tonsils) by two methods: the reference culture method (ISO 6579:2002) and a rapid Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) method.The culture method identified the presence of Salmonella spp. in 13.7% of the samples, while the FISH technique revealed that 38.2% of the samples were positive. From these FISH positive samples, only 58 were concordant to the positive results obtained by the culture method.These results confirm the potential risk that pork represents in salmonellosis transmission, suggesting that additional measures should be taken during evisceration practices and extraction of tonsils and mandibular lymph nodes after slaughter, in order to achieve a better control of Salmonella contamination during slaughter. The FISH method showed to be a rapid screening tool for Salmonella spp. detection in pork samples.