Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Microbiology 2008-3289 10 1 2018 02 26 45 50 EN Asma Afshari Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Ahmad Baratpour Department of Food Hygiene, School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Saeed Khanzade Department of Food Hygiene, School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Abdollah Jamshidi Department of Food Hygiene, School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 2016 11 03 2018 01 07 Background and Objectives: Salmonellosis caused by Salmonella spp. is one of the most important zoonotic diseases and transmits to human through raw food animal products including poultry meat. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium are the most important strains that infect human. This study was conducted to evaluate the contamination rate of poultry carcasses with S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium using multiplex PCR assay. Materials and Methods: 100 samples were selected during the summer and fall of 2010 by cluster sampling method from 10 broiler flocks, which were slaughtered in a poultry abattoir located in Mashhad suburb. After culturing the samples in enrichment and selective media and obtaining suspected colonies, DNA was extracted and Salmonella isolates were identified by multiplex-PCR. Three sets of primer pairs tagreting invA gene for Salmonella genus, prot6 gene for entritidis serovar and fliC gene for Typhimurium serovar were used. Results: The contamination of poultry carcasses with Salmonella was 14% (14/100) which 43% (6/14) of them were identified as S. Enteritidis and 36% (5/14) identified as S. Typhimurium, respectively. Conclusion: Results of this study indicated that the risk of zoonotic diseases created by S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium is relatively high in poultry carcasses. https://ijm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijm/article/view/1184 https://ijm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijm/article/download/1184/780