Evaluation of the Reveal quick test for Salmonella detection in raw chicken meat

Salmonella belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family, and is the cause of illnesses such as enteric fevers, enteritis and septicemia. Accordingly, a necessity exists of researching and developing new techniques,--which must be sensible, specific, economic and fast--for genus determination; all this related to the culture technique (official technique). In the present work, 80 samples of chicken were analyzed for Salmonella both by the Reveal equipment and by the culture technique with and without a pre-enrichment step (reference technique). Samples were collected in established markets in Netzahualcóyotl City and Chimalhuacán, Estado de México; and analyzed by the culture technique, from which 15 Salmonella strains were isolated. 14 of those strains were obtained when the pre-enrichment step was implemented. Meanwhile, using the Reveal equipment (new technique), the presence of 16 Salmonella strains was identified. The statistical method used, defined as a method of predictive values, calculates the sensitivity and specificity of the Reveal test in relation with the culture technique. It also determines the positive predictive value (PPV), that represents the probability that the microorganism is truly present when the Reveal test scores positive; and the negative predictive value (NPV), that represents the probability that the microorganim is not present when the Reveal test scores negative.