The role of H2S in the recovery of Salmonella spp. from animals

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Grammato Evangelopoulou and A R Burriel

University of Thessaly, Greece

: J Vet Sci Med Diagn 2015, 4:6

Abstract

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The ability of a microorganism to produce H2S is an important taxonomic characteristic within the family of Enterobacteriaceae with Citrobacter spp., Proteus spp. and Salmonella spp. considered major H2S-producers. H2S is a very toxic compound for mammalian cells helping perhaps, bacteria producing it to colonize or damage tissues thus playing a role in the development of gastroenteritis and ulcerative colitis. The toxicity of H2 S to mammalian cells is comparable to that of cyanide when their LD50 is determined using rodents. About 97.7% of Salmonella spp. serovars other than S. choleraesuis and S. typhi produce H2 S. Loss of H2 S production is observed in environmental strains of Salmonella spp. resulting from mutations or its “masking” by acid production during sugar fermentation on frequently used culture media. In this study, five (5) lactose positive Salmonella spp. and three (3) E. coli isolates recovered using ISO 6579:2002 (Annex D), appeared H2S negative when cultured on XLD and SS agars but they produced it when co-cultured with typically strong H2 S-producing Salmonella isolates. This observation emphasizes possible failures in the identification of Salmonella pathogenic serovars and the possibility of a synergistic increase in the pathogenicity of less pathogenic serovars or other enterobacteria.

Biography

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Grammato Evangelopoulou is a Military Veterinarian specialized in Food Microbiology. Currently, she is carrying out her Doctoral studies in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, Greece. Her Research interests focus on pig salmonellosis and its impact to Public Health. She is a Member of the American Society for Microbiology. Her work is supervised by Professor A R Burriel, Director of The Microbiology and Parasitology Laboratory, University of Thessaly.

matinavet@hotmail.com