Diagnosing salmonellosis requires testing a clinical specimen (such as stool or blood) from an infected person to distinguish it from other illnesses that can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Once Salmonella is identified in the specimen, additional testing can be done to further characterize the Salmonella.
Steps in Laboratory Testing and Reporting Salmonella
Laboratory scientists identify Salmonella infection by culturing a patient’s sample. If Salmonella bacteria grow, then the diagnosis is confirmed, or in laboratory-terms, "culture confirmed."
Clinical diagnostic laboratories report the test results to the treating clinician and submit Salmonella isolates to state and territorial public health laboratories for serotyping and DNA fingerprinting.
The public health laboratories report the results to CDC’s Laboratory-based Enteric Disease Surveillance and to PulseNet
The public health laboratories forward atypical serotypes to CDC’s National Salmonella Reference Laboratory for more characterization or confirmation.