Salmonella is a rod-shaped bacteria that is gram negative, meaning that the bacteria can not be stained with crystal violet dye due to the thin cell wall, these are usually harmful bacteria. They are about 2-5 micrometers in length and 0.7-1.5 micrometers in diameter. Using a flagella as locomotion salmonella lives in the intestinal tract of animals, warm and cold blooded. They can also be found in contaminated soil and water. Although they can't live outside of the hosts digestive tract they can live weeks in contaminated water and years in contaminated soil, humidity, pH, and temperature permitting.
In humans salmonella can cause Gastroenteritis or food poisoning and typhoid fever using invasion of the blood if left untreated. There are two species of salmonella, salmonella bongori and salmonella enterica. Salmonella enterica is the cause of most infection among warm blooded animals(Chandler). There are six subspecies of Salmonella enterica and hundreds of different serotypes(Chandler). Salmonella is a zoonotic bacteria meaning that it can be transmitted from human to animal or animal to human by food washed in fecal contaminated water. This mode of transmission is called transmission through the fecal-oral route(chandler).
Salmonella caused Gastroenteritis or food poisoning can be cause symptoms only 12-72 hours after ingestion and last 4-7 days. While, Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella typhi is also transmitted trough fecal-oral route and causes system