Rh. Davies et al., BACTERIOLOGICAL AND SEROLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF PERSISTENT SALMONELLA-ENTERITIDIS INFECTION IN AN INTEGRATED POULTRY ORGANIZATION, Veterinary microbiology, 58(2-4), 1997, pp. 277-293
Bacteriological monitoring of broiler breeder farms, the hatchery, ren
dering plant and animal feed mill during 1991 identified a number of p
otential cross-contamination hazards, such as the use of processed pou
ltry proteins in the company feed mill and contamination of egg trolle
ys and trays, which may have led to widespread dissemination of Salmon
ella enteritidis within an integrated poultry organisation. Serologica
l monitoring of the flocks suggested that, in most cases, substantial
exposure to S. enteritidis infection occurred during the mid-rearing s
tage whereas routine bacteriological monitoring of poultry house litte
r and dust samples, and meconium samples taken in the hatchery identif
ied infection only after the onset of the laying period. At least 10 p
hage types and six plasmid profile types of S. enteritidis were identi
fied in historic submissions from the organisation including one appar
ently specific plasmid profile type that was distributed throughout th
e various parts of the company. During sampling for this investigation
, most of these strains were not identified, and the number of plasmid
profile types was reduced to a single common UK type. Crown Copyright
(C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.