SALMONELLA

All food animals are susceptible to infection with Salmonella, a genus of gram negative, nonspore-forming, usually motile, facultative anaer obic bacilli belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Salmonella ar e differentiated into over 2200 serologically distinct types (serotype s) based on differences in somatic, flagellar, and capsular antigens. Infection with Salmonella may or may not lead to a sometimes fatal sal monellosis, a disease that can remain localized in the gastrointestina l tract as gastro-enteritis, or become generalized as a septicemia and affect several organ systems. Infected food animals that do not devel op salmonellosis, and those that recover from the disease, become carr iers of Salmonella and serve as sources of infection to humans and oth er animals. Apart from being a source of Salmonella food poisoning for humans, Salmonella-contaminated food animal carcasses are also a conc ern because they are a source of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella.