Microbial Adhesion of Salmonella Muenster, Salmonella Kentucky, Salmonella Newport and Salmonella Kiel: Effect of Ionic Strength on Physicochemical Surface Properties

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of adhesion of different Salmonella’s serovars (S. Newport, S. Muenster, S. Kentucky and S. Kiel) isolated from food surfaces under two ionic strengths (0.1M; 0.001M), in order to understand the influence of environmental characteristics on their adhesion behaviour.

Place and Duration of Study: Laboratory of bioprocesses and biointerfaces; Sciences and technologies Faculty (FST) between February 2015 and July 2015.

Methodology: Physicochemical properties (hydrophobicity, electron donor- electron acceptor) of cells surfaces and substratum surface were determined using contact angle method. The adhesion of Salmonellastrains on glass was studied using optical microscope and Matlab program.

Results: Salmonella strains showed similar cell surface physicochemical properties under low and high ionic strength except for S. Newport and S. Kentucky at low ionic strength. In addition, all Salmonella strains presented strong adhesion ability at low ionic strength (0,001M) especially for S. Newport and S. Kentuckyserovars.

Conclusion: The results presented in this work could contribute to understand and control the microbial adhesion of Salmonella serovars to inert surface depending on environmental conditions.