CE method for analyzing Salmonella typhimurium in water samples.

Salmonella typhimurium is commonly described as a food-borne pathogen. However, natural and drinking water are known to be important sources for the transmission of this pathogen in developing and developed countries. The standard method to determine Salmonella is laborious and many false positives are detected. To solve this, the present work was focused on the development of a capillary zone electrophoresis method coupled to ultraviolet detection for determination of Salmonella typhimurium in water (mineral and tap water). Separations were performed in less than 11 minutes using 4.5 mM Tris (hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane, 4.5 mM boric acid and 0.1 mM ethylene diamine tetraacetate (pH 8.4) with 0.1% v/v poly ethylene oxide as separation buffer. The precision of the method was evaluated in terms of repeatability obtaining a relative standard deviation of 10.5%. Using the proposed method Salmonella typhimurium could be separated from other bacteria that could be present in water such as Escherichia coli. Finally, the proposed methodology was applied to determine Salmonella typhimurium in tap and mineral water.