[Cultural detection of thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. in food--potentials and limitations of diagnostic tools in the context of official food control].

Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. rank among the most important foodborne pathogens in Germany. Therefore a necessity for rapid and routinely useable detection methods exists also in the area of food microbiology. A reliable, cultura qualitative, but also quantitative detection of thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. pose a challenge, at least concerning special food matrices, especially because in the context of official food control the cultural detection of thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. is needed. This was the reason, why different cultural detection methods, beside the standard procedure of ISO 10272:2006, in combination with molecular and immunological screening methods were tested at the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL) during the last years for the use in routine diagnostic using different food matrices of animal and plant origin. The results of the comparative studies showed clearly that no enrichment broth tested gave completely satisfactory results for an only culture-based detection the combination with a screening method is therefore recommended for a rapid and reliable detection. But in this case the user should take into account that the sensitivity of such molecular and immunological methods is normally so high that in some cases, depending on the food matrix and processing step, the isolation of the pathogen would not be possible in samples, which were positive in the screening methods.