Comparison of five culture methods for Salmonella isolation from swine fecal samples of known infection status

The current study was conducted to evaluate 5 bacteriologic culture methods (methods 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) for recovery of Salmonella enterica from swine feces, both for sensitivity of detection (ability to recover Salmonella from a positive sample) and for specificity (not to inadvertently identify an organism as a Salmonella species in a negative sample). Fifty-six negative samples and 46 positive samples were processed using each of the 5 methods, which differed primarily in the combinations of enrichment media used. All negative samples were negative for Salmonella when cultured by all 5 methods (100% specificity). Two of the methods (methods 1 and 4) resulted in the recovery of significantly less (P < 0.05) Salmonella when compared with the remaining 3 methods (methods 2, 3, and 5). No one method was successful in recovering Salmonella from all positive samples, although recovery with method 2 was statistically similar to the total number of positive samples analyzed (42 vs. 46 Salmonella-positive samples, P > 0.05). This study shows that culture methods differ significantly in their performance regarding the isolation of Salmonella from swine fecal samples.