Usefulness of different techniques in the study of the epidemiology of salmonellosis

Our objective was to evaluate the usefulness of serotyping, phagotyping, antibiotyping and RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) in the study of the epidemiology of salmonellosis in Elche (Spain). We examined 1232 clinical isolates of non-typhoid Salmonella serotypes. Serotyping adequately differentiates 12.3% of the isolates and phagotyping raises this percentage to 37%. Antibiotyping is a suitable complement in certain circumstances, such as in the case of specific outbreaks. RAPD is a fast and simple technique which is within the reach of most laboratories, complementing the results obtained by antibiotyping and serotyping, in order to be able to control outbreaks of salmonellosis in everyday practice.