Use of arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction to study Salmonella ecology in a turkey production environment

Turkeys, liners, waterers, litter, air, and feed weighbacks were sampled for Salmonella. Salmonella species S. simsbury, S. kentucky, S. montevideo, S. senftenberg, and S. ealing were identified at a rate of 54.9, 38.0, 2.8, 2.8, and 1.4% respectively. All isolates were subjected to Salmonella-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and were confirmed as Salmonella-positive by the predicted product, a 457-bp DNA fragment. Biofingerprint patterns of each isolate were generated using arbitrary primer sets, LG6+LG8 and LG6+LG9. These primer sets differentiated between Salmonella serotypes except for S. simsbury and S. senftenberg. No differences in fingerprint patterns were observed among farm isolates that were the same serotype. This similarity suggested that these isolates were from a common origin or that primer sets could not distinguish isolates at the subserotype level. Frequency of Salmonella isolation decreased from Week 10 to 18 of the growout period. Resistance of older birds to Salmonella colonization, due to a more mature gut microflora, may account for this observation. Results demonstrate that arbitrarily primed-PCR (AP-PCR) can effectively differentiate among serotypes except for S. simsbury and S. senftenberg; results regarding potential to differentiate at the subserotype level were inconclusive.