Evaluation of Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (Aflp) Analysis as a Method for Tracking Salmonella Enterica in a Foodborne Outbreak

Abstract

Foodborne disease causes illness and death in people around the world and costs nations millions of dollars and many lives. Currently in US, pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is used to monitor and track foodborne outbreaks. However, it lacks the discriminatory power to identify two different sources of the same strain of Salmonella enterica. This study evaluated the discrimination, reproducibility, and accuracy of an alternative method, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), in conjunction with a simple electropherogram coding system. Comparing the codes prepared in triplicate of six clinical samples of S. enterica from the Oklahoma Department of Health to each other results were less reproducible and discriminatory than previous AFLP studies done on organisms in the Serratia and Pseuodomonas genera. When codes prepared in lab were compared to codes prepared in silico as a measure of accuracy, the codes were only 12-23% similar. Because of the low accuracy, reproducibility, and discrimination of AFLP when applied to S. enterica, AFLP in conjunction with the AFLP haplotype system are not suitable for tracking foodborne outbreaks of salmonellosis.