A NATIONAL SURVEY TO ESTIMATE THE PREVALENCE OF SALMONELLA SPECIES AMONG CANADIAN REGISTERED COMMERCIAL TURKEY FLOCKS

In 1990-1991, a national survey was conducted to estimate the prevalen ce of Salmonella species among Canadian commercial turkey flocks. Two hundred and seventy flocks were randomly selected across Canada. The p roportion sampled from each province was selected according to each pr ovince's share of the national turkey market. Samples, consisting of 1 2 pooled fitter and four pooled dust samples, were used to determine t he Salmonella status of the environment of each flock. Additionally, a one kilogram sample of feed was taken from each flock premise. Salmon ella was recovered from environmental samples in 234/270 (86.7%) of fl ocks and from feed samples in 26/266 (9.8%) of flocks. Forty-eight dif ferent Salmonella serovars were isolated from flock environmental samp les. The most prevalent serovars were S. anatum, S. hadar, S. agona, S . heidelberg and S. saintpaul which were isolated from 53/270 (19.6%), 49/270 (18.1%), 49/270 (18.1%), 42/270 (15.6%) and 34/270 (12.6%) flo cks, respectively.