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.

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