The Salm-gene project - a European collaboration for DNA fingerprinting for food-related salmonellosis

T M Peters; C Maguire; E J Threlfall; I. S.T. Fisher; N Gill; A J Gatto

doi:10.2807/esm.08.02.00401-en

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The Salm-gene project - a European collaboration for DNA fingerprinting for food-related salmonellosis
T M Peters¹ , C Maguire¹ , E J Threlfall¹ , I. S.T. Fisher² , N Gill² , A J Gatto²
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Affiliations: ¹ Public Health Laboratory Service, Laboratory of Enteric Pathogens, London, United Kingdom ² Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London, United Kingdom

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Citation style for this article: Peters T M, Maguire C, Threlfall E J, Fisher I. S.T., Gill N, Gatto A J. The Salm-gene project - a European collaboration for DNA fingerprinting for food-related salmonellosis. Euro Surveill. 2003;8(2):pii=401. https://doi.org/10.2807/esm.08.02.00401-en

Abstract

An external quality assessment of PFGE method to discriminate between salmonella serotypes and lysotypes was carried out by the Salm-Gene project in Europe. A set of 16 strains of S. Enteritidis was sent to 9 national salmonella reference laboratories. By using a harmonised protocol, the PFGE profiles produced were comparable between each centre. In most cases, there was at least 90% similarity between isolates tested in the different European laboratories and there was usually >95% similarity. This suggests that PFGE analyses are reproducible and therefore can be used as a valuable investigation tool combined with epidemiological data.