Abstract
An arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) was developed to analyze the genomic DNAs of Salmonella enteritidis isolates from human outbreaks and from avian sources. The AP-PCR generated seven distinct randomly amplified DNA patterns among the S. enteritidis isolates studied. Differences in the DNA patterns among isolates of S. enteritidis phage types 13a and 8 as well as among S. enteritidis phage type 14b were observed. The AP-PCR analysis can be used to determine the differences among isolates within the same phage types and may be useful for tracing back the source of S. enteritidis outbreaks in humans more precisely.