FIGURE 5.

Load of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) and Salmonella Typhimurium (ST) in soil incubated at three different temperatures for 6 weeks. (A) Log₁₀ CFU/g of soil of SE and ST affected by storage temperatures (5, 25, and 37°C). (B) Proportion of positive soil samples for SE and ST determined through the enrichment method. Only, the samples that did not show any Salmonella growth after direct plating were enriched. (C) Moisture level of the Salmonella inoculated soil samples incubated at 5, 25, and 37°C. (D) Water activity of the Salmonella inoculated soil samples incubated at 5, 25, and 37°C. The Salmonella inoculated soil samples were processed for Salmonella load through culture, Salmonella detection through enrichment method and moisture and water activity determination at weekly intervals for up to 6 weeks of incubation time period. Asterisk (^∗) denotes significant difference at P < 0.01, while ns denotes non-significant difference. Different superscripts (^a,b,c,d) show significant difference within each treatment group at each sampling timepoint.