title: Development of a LIBS assay for the detection of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium from food.
abstract: Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used for the identification of the presence of hazardous bacteria in food. In this study, our main focus was centered on the identification of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, a Gram-negative foodborne pathogen, in various liquids such as milk, chicken broth, and brain heart infusion due to the infection being most prevalent in raw meat and dairy products. A Nd:YAG laser of operating wavelength 266 nm was used to obtain the spectra from the artificially inoculated liquid samples. A series of experiments were performed to determine the effectiveness of LIBS to discriminate the bacteria from the background liquids. These results are compared with competing modern molecular methods of detection which include polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and quantitative real-time PCR. In addition to analyzing S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, another common Gram-negative, Escherichia coli, as well as Gram-positive pathogen, Staphlycoccus auerus, were used to determine the specificity of the LIBS technique.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Science, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL 36104, USA. cmbarnett@alasu.edu
authors.forename: Cleon
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barnett
authors.forename: Courtneé
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Komal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vig
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Akpovo
authors.forename: Lewis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Shreekumar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pillai
authors.forename: Shree
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005516:Food Microbiology / Q000379:methods*; D007834:Lasers; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods*