Automated detection of hydrogen sulfide release from thiosulfate by Salmonella spp.

Hydrogen sulfide production is used in conventional tests for identification and differentiation of Salmonella spp. from other species of Enterobacteriaceae, and a black precipitate on agar media is the indicator of the reaction. Selective liquid media were formulated for automated optical detection of H2S in salmonellae using the BioSys instrument. The media contained thiosulfate and ferric ammonium citrate, and production of H2S caused copious black pigmentation of the broth. Combination of the H2S indicators with dulcitol or xylose as fermentable carbohydrate, lysine, ornithine or arginine to induce decarboxylase activity, and Tergitol 4 as inhibitor selectively identified six Salmonella spp. by a sharp drop in transmittance at 585 nm. The time for detection of transmittance changes was inversely proportional to initial numbers of CFU in the media: 10 h for 10(5) CFU/ml and 17 h for 10(1) CFU/ml. No detection was observed in six non-Salmonella species of Enterobacteriaceae tested.