Salmonellosis is a zoonotic disease that takes its toll in humans and animals. Particularly contaminated eggs may cause this serious illness. Proper management of the layer flock will reduce the risk and even keep salmonellosis fully away.
By Freek Thomassen, DVM
Hendrix Genetics, The Netherlands
Salmonellosis belongs to the most important food-borne zoonoses throughout the world. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), each year over 90.000 salmonellosis cases are reported in the European Union. While for the United States, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) estimates that about 1.2 million illnesses and 450 deaths occur every year. The CDC estimated that food is the source for about 1 million illnesses in the USA. For Europe, a significant decreasing trend of salmonellosis has been observed between 2008 and 2016. However, recent Salmonella Enteritidis outbreaks contributed to a change in this decreasing trend in both humans and poultry.
What is Salmonella?
Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause an illness called salmonellosis in humans. Salmonella is commonly found in the intestines of healthy birds and mammals. In humans, the risk of a Salmonella infection is associated with the consumption of contaminated food. The food categories posing the greatest hazard to public health include raw meat and raw meat products, unpasteurized milk products, eggs and products containing raw eggs, sprouted seeds and fish products. The main symptoms of salmonellosis include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In most of the cases people infected with Salmonella do recover, unfortunately in less than 0.1 % of the cases it can result in death.
Salmonella and its relation to poultry
The 1999 report from Steinback and Hartung revealed that approximately 60% to 65% of human infections were caused by Salmonella arising from poultry, eggs and egg products. Their research also showed that this was nearly exclusively linked to Salmonella Enteritidis. S. Enteritidis is markedly associated with laying hens, broilers and broiler meat (figures 1+2.). The European Union summary report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food borne outbreaks in 2016 reveals that in 2016, 1.47% of the EU breeding flocks were tested Salmonella positive (versus 1.42% in 2015) and 3.71% of adult laying hens flocks were tested positive (versus 2.67% in 2015). S. Enteritidis seems to play a dominating role in the European ...
