As a One Health organisation, we are heavily involved in numerous monitoring programmes for feed, animals and food.
Feed is constantly monitored and controlled in Austria, at feed manufacturers, trading companies and on farms. However, salmonella is found in animal feed very unevenly and often only in small numbers, which makes detection difficult. And if feed contains even very few salmonella, they can multiply explosively in the poultry intestines. The animals also do not become ill; in chickens, for example, salmonella colonisation often remains hidden.
For this reason, samples from laying hens, broilers, fattening turkeys and parent stock are routinely analysed for salmonella in our laboratories in Austria. The EU-wide rule is that only 2% of laying hen flocks and only one per cent of broiler, turkey and parent stock flocks may be contaminated with salmonella.
Despite all these testing programmes, salmonella still gets into food, especially poultry meat and eggs. This is why we analyse thousands of food samples for these pathogens every year.
Extensive monitoring has led to a reduction in the number of people infected with salmonella in Austria from over 8,400 in 2002 to just under 1,200 in 2022. Our investigations into outbreaks of illness caused by salmonella are very important in this context: By comparing the genetic fingerprints of the pathogens in humans, food, animals and animal feed, we can ideally identify the source of the infection at the beginning of the food chain and thus prevent further cases of illness in humans.
