Use of the SALMOTYPE (R) meat juice ELISA for the detection of salmonella antibodies in serum of slaughter pigs

The German Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Food, Agr iculture and Forestry have presented "guidelines for a program to reduce th e introduction of salmonella into meat production by slaughter pigs";These guidelines intend to determine the prevalence of salmonella in farms raisin g slaughter pigs. For this, random samples are to be examined with a meat j uice ELISA for the detection of salmonella antibodies. In this study the us e of two such ELISA systems was tested. In order to compare the commerciall y available SALMOTYPE(R) meat juice ELISA with a meat juice ELISA developed by the German Federal Institute for Health Protection of Consumers and Vet erinary Medicine (BgVV) test sera were examined in parallel via both system s. In these examinations the SALMOTYPE(R) meat juice ELISA showed a higher sensibility. Further experiments were tarried out to analyse the practical applicability of the SALMOTYPE(R) meat juice ELISA. For this, 119 serum sam ples of slaughter pigs were examined with the SALMOTYPE(R) meat juice ELISA . The advantages of this test system, which were already noticed in the com parison of the two test systems, like quick performance, ease of applicatio n and reliability of results, were confirmed in these examinations.