how to check salmonella in log phase - (Aug/17/2016 )

Hi all,

We are detecting salmonella using commercial kits, and detecting the presence in real time PCR. Can some body tell me, in preparing the standard curve, do the salmonella cultures have to be in their log phase? if so, how to check it? Since salmonella is virulant cannot put it in spectrophotometer cuvettes.

Cant we use another culture which is non virulant with a similar colony doubling time?

Thanks 

Your question is outside of my area of expertise.

But can't you put a spectrophotometer inside a BSL-2 hood?  Even a small nanodrop can measure OD, and those are easy to UV sterilize.

https://www.google.com/search?q=small+spectrophotometer