Member States shall prepare an annual report on the results of the EU-wide Salmonella control programs. This reports on the proportion of flocks in which Salmonella spp. on the one hand and the target serovars S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium (including the monophasic variant) were detected in all poultry populations and S. Hadar, S. Infantis and S. Virchow in parent stock of Gallus gallus. In Austria, Poultry Health Data are analyzed for this purpose.
In 2017, target serovars were detected in 1.3% breeding chickens (2 flocks with S. Infantis), in 0.6% laying hens (15 flocks with S. Enteritidis and one with S. Typhimurium), in 0.1% broilers (three flocks with S. Enteritidis), and in 0% fattening turkeys. Thus, the EU targets were met in laying hens, broilers, and turkeys, but not in breeding chickens. Salmonella spp. were isolated from a total of three breeding flocks (1.9%), 33 laying hens (1.1%), 183 broilers (3.7%), and 12 turkeys (2.7%).
In turkeys, the success of the control program is impressively demonstrated by the reduction of Salmonella spp.positive flocks from 10.1% in 2013 to proportions ranging from 3.6% to 2.5% in 2014-2017. All other poultry populations showed tendencies of deterioration in recent years, indicating that the maintenance of the set measures such as implementation of vaccination programs and application of strict farm hygiene and its control must not be weakened: the number of Salmonella positive flocks increased slightly (from two to three) in populations of parent flocks compared to the previous year (2016). In laying hens, the proportion of flocks in which Salmonella was detected decreased compared to 2016 (1.52% to 1.15%), but the proportion of laying hen flocks with target serovars increased slightly from 0.35% to 0.56% since 2014. In the broiler population, the proportions of Salmonella- or target serovar-positive flocks decreased slightly compared to 2016, but the highest value of Salmonella-positive flocks to date was counted (n=183) and an increasing trend (2016: 3.8%) must be recorded since 2011 (2.4% positive flocks).
P. MUCH1, H. SUN, H. SCHLIESSNIG, V. RÜCKER