Table 2.

Advantages and disadvantages of some commonly available molecular techniques for identifying foodborne pathogens

Identification method	Advantages	Disadvantages	References
Single PCRa	Provides a more accurate, sensitive and rapid detection of single bacteria or genes	Does not produce isolates that can further be characterized, components in foods can interfere with PCR performance and give misleading results, PCR conditions must be optimized for better performance	Sails et al. (1998); Wang et al. (2000); Abulreesh et al. (2006)
Multiplex PCRa	Reduces cost, limits sample volumes and allows rapid detection of multiple bacteria	Primer design is critical, primers may interfere with each other leaving some genes and bacteria undetected	Elnifro et al. 2000; Shi et al. (2010)
Real-time PCRb	Shortens detection time, detect and quantify bacteria in real time, and high sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility	Require expensive equipment and reagents, setting up requires high technical skills	Heid et al. (1996); Wong and Medrano (2005); Shi et al. (2010)
Reverse-transcription PCRb	Can detect only viable cells of pathogens	Much skill is required to handle unstable RNA for pathogen detection	Sails et al. (1998); Sharma (2006); Shi et al. (2010)
Nested PCRb	Has improved sensitivity and specificity than the conventional PCR method	Contamination level can be high probably from the laboratory environment	Picken et al. (1997)

^aApplied to duck bacterial isolates

^bTheir applications to duck bacterial isolates are unavailable or yet to be published