The prevalence of Salmonella enteritidis and other Salmonella spp. among Canadian registered commercial layer flocks

Abstract

A survey was conducted to estimate the prevalence of Salmonella enteritidis and other salmonellas among Canadian commercial egg producing flocks. Environmental (faecal and eggbelt) samples from 152 of 295 (52·9%) randomly selected flocks were contaminated with salmonellas. Thirty-five different salmonella serovars were isolated. Eggbelt samples were more often contaminated with salmonellas than faecal samples (25·7 v. 10·1 %). The most prevalent serovars were S. heidelberg, S. infantis, S. hadar, and S. schwarzengrund; they were isolated from samples of 59/295 (20%), 18/295 (6·1%), 17/295 (5·8%), and 15/295 (5·1%) flocks, respectively. Feed samples of 21/295 (7·2%) flocks were contaminated with salmonellas. Salmonella enteritidis was isolated from the environmental samples of 8/295 (2·7%) flocks. Salmonella enteritidis phage type (PT) 8 was isolated from 5 flocks, PT 13a from 2 flocks, and PT 13 from 1 flock. © 1991, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.