3.4. Correlation between enterococci and concentration of
Salmonella
Pooling samples into six strata by their concentration of Salmonella,
and computing the average enterococci counts in each of
these strata, showed a significant positive correlation between the
concentrations of Salmonella and enterococci in the samples
(P < 0.001). Enterococci negative samples, spanning samples with
no up to 99 enterococci per gram, on average had less than 0.04 CFU/g of Salmonella when being positive for the pathogen
(Fig. 3), while Salmonella positive samples with at least 1000 CFU/g
of enterococci, on average, were contaminated with a 100 fold
higher number of Salmonella (> 4 CFU/g).