Salmonella

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two known species of Salmonella are Salmonella enterica and Salmonella bongori. S. enterica is the type species and is further divided into six subspecies that include over 2,650 serotypes. Salmonella was named after Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850–1914), an American veterinary surgeon.

Salmonella species are non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with cell diameters between about 0.7 and 1.5 μm, lengths from 2 to 5 μm, and peritrichous flagella (all around the cell body, allowing them to move). They are chemotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction reactions, using organic sources. They are also facultative anaerobes, capable of generating adenosine triphosphate with oxygen ("aerobically") when it is available, or using other electron acceptors or fermentation ("anaerobically") when oxygen is not available.

Salmonella species are intracellular pathogens, of which certain serotypes cause illness such as salmonellosis. Most infections are due to the ingestion of food contaminated by feces. Typhoidal Salmonella serotypes can only be transferred between humans and can cause foodborne illness as well as typhoid and paratyphoid fever. Typhoid fever is caused by typhoidal Salmonella invading the bloodstream, as well as spreading throughout the body, invading organs, and secreting endotoxins (the septic form). This can lead to life-threatening hypovolemic shock and septic shock, and requires intensive care, including antibiotics.

Nontyphoidal Salmonella serotypes are zoonotic and can be transferred from animals and between humans. They usually invade only the gastrointestinal tract and cause salmonellosis, the symptoms of which can be resolved without antibiotics. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, nontyphoidal Salmonella can be invasive and cause paratyphoid fever, which requires immediate antibiotic treatment.

The genus Salmonella is part of the family of Enterobacteriaceae. Its taxonomy has been revised and has the potential to confuse. The genus comprises two species, S. bongori and S. enterica, the latter of which is divided into six subspecies: S. e. enterica, S. e. salamae, S. e. arizonae, S. e. diarizonae, S. e. houtenae, and S. e. indica. The taxonomic group contains more than 2500 serotypes (also serovars) defined on the basis of the somatic O (lipopolysaccharide) and flagellar H antigens (the Kauffman–White classification). The full name of a serotype is given as, for example, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serotype Typhimurium, but can be abbreviated to Salmonella Typhimurium. Further differentiation of strains to assist clinical and epidemiological investigation may be achieved by antibiotic sensitivity testing and by other molecular biology techniques such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multilocus sequence typing, and, increasingly, whole genome sequencing. Historically, salmonellae have been clinically categorized as invasive (typhoidal) or non-invasive (nontyphoidal salmonellae) based on host preference and disease manifestations in humans.

Salmonella was first visualized in 1880 by Karl Eberth in the Peyer's patches and spleens of typhoid patients. Four years later, Georg Theodor Gaffky was able to grow the pathogen in pure culture. A year after that, medical research scientist Theobald Smith discovered what would be later known as Salmonella enterica (var. Choleraesuis). At the time, Smith was working as a research laboratory assistant in the Veterinary Division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The division was under the administration of Daniel Elmer Salmon, a veterinary pathologist. Initially, Salmonella Choleraesuis was thought to be the causative agent of hog cholera, so Salmon and Smith named it "Hog-cholera bacillus". The name Salmonella was not used until 1900, when Joseph Leon Lignières proposed that the pathogen discovered by Salmon's group be called Salmonella in his honor.

In the late 1930s, Australian bacteriologist Nancy Atkinson established a salmonella typing laboratory – one of only three in the world at the time – at the Government of South Australia's Laboratory of Pathology and Bacteriology in Adelaide (later the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science). It was here that Atkinson described multiple new strains of salmonella, including Salmonella Adelaide, which was isolated in 1943. Atkinson published her work on salmonellas in 1957.

Serotyping is done by mixing cells with antibodies for a particular antigen. It can give some idea about risk. A 2014 study showed that S. Reading is very common among young turkey samples, but it is not a significant contributor to human salmonellosis. Serotyping can assist in identifying the source of contamination by matching serotypes in people with serotypes in the suspected source of infection. Appropriate prophylactic treatment can be identified from the known antibiotic resistance of the serotype.