| Summary: | The United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) does not maintain a zero-tolerance policy for <i>Salmonella</i> in poultry and poultry products, despite being a known food safety hazard throughout the poultry industry. In 2016, USDA FSIS established performance standards for a 52-week moving window with the maximum acceptable percent positive for comminuted turkey (325 g sample) at 13.5% (7 of 52 samples). Based upon FSIS verification sampling results from one 52-week moving window, the <i>Salmonella</i> prevalence for each poultry establishment in category 1 (below limit), 2 (meeting limit), or 3 (exceeding limit) are published for public viewing. Moreover, many poultry producers continue to have post-intervention samples test positive. Therefore, the use of quantification would be more valuable to determine the efficacy of process control interventions, corrective actions, and final product Log CFU/g of <i>Salmonella</i> to make rapid, within shift, food safety decisions. Therefore, the objectives of these studies are to develop, verify, and validate a rapid and reliable quantification method utilizing RT-PCR to enumerate <i>Salmonella</i> in the poultry industry from flock to final product and to utilize the method in an application study. BAX<sup>®</sup> System SalQuant<sup>®</sup> is an application of the BAX<sup>®</sup> System Real-Time PCR Assay for <i>Salmonella</i> to enumerate low levels of <i>Salmonella</i> with shortened enrichment times. Curve development encompassed inoculating poultry matrix samples at four levels with an ATCC strain of <i>Salmonella</i>, with three biological replicates per inoculation level, and five technical replicates being run on the BAX<sup>®</sup> System for various timepoints, gathering the data, and creating a linear-fit equation. A linear-fit equation was provided for each timepoint. The ideal timepoint, based on the statistical parameters surrounding the equation (R2 > 0.80, Log RMSE < 0.60, and enumerable range 0.00 to 4.00 Log CFU/mL (g)) that most accurately estimate <i>Salmonella</i> compared to most probable number (MPN), was chosen to be utilized for further studies.
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