Occurrence of Salmonella in German poultry and poultry meat - 1. Small establishments with on-site slaughter and marketing facilities

In 1999, a research project on the occurrence of Salmonella in German farm poultry and poultry meat was performed under the supervision of the BgVV ai med at collecting data on the degree of infection and contamination of broi lers in small establishments with on-site slaughter and marketing facilitie s. Sampling was performed in 5 regions of Germany. A total of 24 small esta blishments in these regions had consented to participate in the research pr oject. As a rule, samples were taken from 3 flocks per feedlot, if possible in directly successive fattening periods, so that finally 62 flocks from s mall establishments were examined for the occurrence of salmonellas. Depend ing on the size of the poultry houses, 6-10 faeces samples were collected f rom sock samples and neck skin samples were taken from 10 freshly slaughter ed chickens. In 14.5% of the sock sample-collected faeces samples and in 9.7% of the nec k skin samples taken in the establishments salmonellas were detected. The S almonella-positive result obtained were mostly individual findings. Only in two of the 24 small establishments: where samples were taken, results were repeatedly positive and only in three of the 62 flocks examined, salmonell as were detectable in sock sample-collected faeces and neck skin samples. S . Enteridis phage type PT 4 was the serovar detected most frequently in soc k sample -collected faeces and neck skin samples from broiler flocks of sma ll establishments.