Abstract

The starting point was the huge Alvesta outbreak in 1953, which was unprecedented in Sweden, with more than 9000 cases reported. Approximately 4000 persons required hospital care and 90 persons died. The outbreak lasted from June to December 1953, affecting major regions of Sweden. Consequently, several measures were enacted. The Public Health Institute of Sweden created a department of epidemiology to investigate outbreaks; doctors were recommended when seeing patients with diarrhoea to take faecal samples for bacteriological investigations. In 1961, offi cial control of all Salmonella serovars of public health importance on the animal side commenced. Moreover, Salmonella infection in animals became a notifi able disease. One unique feature of the Swedish Salmonella control is the aim to deliver Salmonella - free food to consumers. Therefore, all broilers sent for slaughter should be without Salmonella . This was achieved by the following strategies: (1) preventing contamination of the breeding pyramid (grandparent and parent fl ocks including hatcheries); (2) preventing and eliminating Salmonella contamination in feed given to broiler fl ocks; (3) surveillance of the production chain at critical control points to detect Salmonella contamination; (4) biosecurity on the production site; and (5) whenever Salmonella is found, taking action to remove it from the food chain. The Salmonella control of poultry has been successful, with rare fi ndings of Salmonella in meat and almost no human cases linked to Swedish poultry meat. The baseline studies organized by EFSA (2007 and 2010) found Salmonella in 0% of the broiler fl ocks and 0.3% of the broiler carcasses.

Keywords

salmonella control poultry Sweden

Published in

Title: Achieving sustainable production of poultry meat: safety, quality and sustainability
ISBN: 978-1-78676-067-8
Publisher: Burleigh Dodds Science publishing

SLU Authors

• Vågsholm, Ivar

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Pathobiology
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Other Veterinary Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79403