Oral Presentation Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2019

Storage temperature influences the in vitro invasiveness of Salmonella Typhimurium and minimises disease in mice (#77)

Andrea R McWhorter 1 , Talia S Moyle 1 , Kapil K Chousalkar 1
  1. University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA, Australia

Foods containing raw or undercooked eggs often become contaminated with Salmonella. It is recommended that raw egg-based foods are acidified and stored under refrigeration, yet the incidence of foodborne cases of salmonellosis has been increasing. Previously, it was found that the culturability of Salmonella Typhimurium from the raw egg-based sauce, aioli, is dependent on pH and storage temperature. Here, the in vitro invasion of bacteria recovered from aioli preparations was tested for invasiveness into the human intestinal epithelial cell line, Caco2. Invasion was significantly reduced in low pH aioli preparations. After 48 hours, bacteria isolated from aioli samples were non-invasive. Salmonella in non-acidified aioli preparations exhibited reduced invasiveness compared with broth cultures but were still invasive at 72 hours post-inoculation. The ability of Salmonella Typhimurium in aioli (pH 3.5) to cause disease was also tested in BALB/c mice over a 21-day period.  Mice were inoculated with 108 CFU of Salmonella Typhimurium stored in aioli at 5°C or 25°C for 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours. Control mice were inoculated with 108 CFU of Salmonella Typhimurium in Luria Bertani broth. Mice in infected control groups exhibited clinical signs of infection from day 1 post-infection and were all culled by day 4. Mice infected with aioli inoculated with Salmonella and stored at 5°C for 12 and 24 hours exhibited mild clinical symptoms from day 6. Two mice in the 5°C, 24-hour treatment group and one mouse in the 5°C, 12-hour treatment group were culled on day 7 post-infection. Faeces were monitored every three days for the presence of Salmonella using both culture and PCR methods.  Salmonella was detected from infected control groups at day 3 post-infection. Faecal samples were Salmonella positive for 5°C, 24-hour treatment group at day 3 post-inoculation only. The 5°C, 12-hour treatment group had positive faeces at days 3 and 6 post inoculation. These results indicate that acidification of raw egg-based foods may limit Salmonella Typhimurium virulence.