Performance of wild, tailed, humidity-robust phage on a surface-scanning magnetoelastic biosensor for Salmonella Typhimurium detection

•The performance of a tailed phage was firstly compared with a filamentous phage.•Tailed phage showed excellent binding interaction with a positively charged sensor.•Tailed phage exhibited a competitive humidity-robustness and specificity.•Detection limit and sensitivity of tailed phage were greater than filamentous phage.•Tailed phage demonstrated reliable detection performance at ambient humidity.