Homogenized egg samples (100 ml) were artificially inoculated with 100 ul suspensions of SE cells to make final a concentration of approximately 10 cells/ml. The spiked samples were mixed with buffered peptone water (BPW) giving egg to broth ratios of 1:2, 1:4 and 1:10, and further stomached as described before. After 24 h incubation at 37 jC, 100 ul of each broth culture treatment was applied onto the test panel and the results were determined after 20 min.