Abstract

Salmonella Enteritidis is considered one of the main causes of economic losses among poultry industry and production. The present study was aimed to characterize Salmonella Enteritidis isolated from broiler chickens and provide an insight toward plasmid profile of these isolates. A total of 125 samples were collected from broiler chickens; and bacteriological isolation was carried out using tetrathionate broth and MacConkey agar medium. Five isolates of S. Enteritidis were obtained by serotyping using O and H antisera and confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Plasmid profile which was carried out on these isolates indicated that this five isolates having three different plasmid profiles concluding that phenotypically similar strains of SE may be genotypically different and plasmid profile is a simple method that could detect this genotypic variation.

Key words: Salmonella Enteritidis, Plasmid Profile, Chickens