Comparison of epidemiological marker methods for identification of Salmonella typhimurium isolates from an outbreak caused by contaminated chocolate.

Plasmid profile analysis, restriction endonuclease analysis, and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis were used in conjunction with serotyping, bacteriophage typing, and biochemical fingerprinting to trace epidemiologically related isolates of Salmonella typhimurium from an outbreak caused by contaminated chocolate products in Norway and Finland. To evaluate the efficiency of the epidemiological marker methods, isolates from the outbreak were compared with five groups of control isolates not known to be associated with the outbreak. Both plasmid profile analysis and phage typing provided further discrimination over that produced by serotyping and biochemical fingerprinting. Plasmid profile analysis and phage typing were equally reliable in differentiating the outbreak isolates from the epidemiologically unrelated controls and were significantly more effective than multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and restriction enzyme analysis of total DNA. The greatest differentiation was achieved when plasmid profile analysis and phage typing were combined to complement serotyping and biochemical fingerprinting. However, none of the methods employed, including restriction enzyme analysis of plasmid DNA, were able to distinguish the outbreak isolates from five isolates recovered in Norway and Finland over a period of years from dead passerine birds and a calf.