PRESUMPTIVE IDENTIFICATION OF SALMONELLA-ENTERICA USING 2 RAPID TESTS

Two rapid test for early detection of Salmonella enterica, the cytochrome oxidase test and a fluorescence test, were evaluated in 1,200 colonies which had been isolated from human feces and cultured on MacConkey and Salmonella-Shigella media. Using the fluorescence test there were no false negative results (sensitivity 100 %) and of 205 positive cases 62 did "ot correspond biochemically to salmonella (specificity 94.1 %); 44 of these 62 were positive in the cytochrome oxidase test, raising the specificity to 98.2 %. In conclusion, the combination of the two tests could be very useful due to the ease of performance, low cost and excellent results obtained.