Salmonella Typhimurium

Dear Dr. Hendrik
Good insight in to the behaviour of S.typhimurium DT41in dust & pelleted feed. Viability of S.typhimurium in feed at ambient temperature in tropical countries should be in between 12 to 30 weeks which is a long period. Excreting DT41 up to 60 weeks in birds is also a serious point to remember for the breeder/layer farmers. I have read somewhere that vaccination to control these non specific pathogen encourages for poultry specific Salmonella such S.gallinarum to occupy that niche. Is it true?

D.C.Hettiarachchi - Sri Lanka

Dear Christopher,
Thanks for your commenting about our work with Salmonella Typhimurium DT41. In Danish commercial chicken products for human comsumption salmonella is not tolerated. The rare detection of a potisive broiler breeder flock will lead to killing of the flock followed by cleaning and disinfection of the house. Feed is certainly not the source of such outbreaks since it is controlled to be salmonella free. Vaccination is not used in Denmark to control salmonella since there is zero tolerance. This includes the host specific S. Gallinarum as well. DT41 has been a major cause of sporadic outbreaks. Although rare, the costs are high since the whole flock of breeders needs to be killed. We have shown that chicken DT41 isolates are not the source of human cases. We are still working on finding the source. Wild birds have been mentioned but the are not entering the houses. I am not aware of niche shifts between host adapted and non-host adapted salmonellas. I think that the important point is to keep all of them out. S. Gallinarum by implementing strick biosecurity from the top of the production pyramid. I wish you all the best for your work with salmonella, it has been nice discussing with you.
Best regards, Henrik

All authors must be praised to provide some good insight into the evil empire of Salmonella, which is no doubt the one of the biggest threat to health of all species including humans, production animals, etc. As Mr Christensen mentioned that in Denmark they have zero tolerance for salmonella in feeds. I would like to request honorable author to mention measures taken to remove or control salmonella population in feed. I know that people using organic acids, long term conditioning (4 minutes with 85C), formaldehyde or combination of different strategies, but i wish if Mr. Christensen could share his experience and measures to control salmonella in feed in Denmark.

Dear Dr. Arshaq A Ramzee
Thanks for you question about treatment of feed in order to eliminate salmonella from poultry production.
All feed is heat treated by steam during production (72 C) and temp. additionally reach 81 C during pelleting. The feed production is controlled by a HACCP program. After production care taken not to comtaminate feed before it reaches the farm. The Danish salmonella control program is described in the Annual report of Zoonoses: http://www.dfvf.dk/Default.aspx?ID=9606
Best regards, Henrik Christensen

11.12.2011,
Dear Dr. Henrik Christensen,
Protein and fat have masking effects against heat treatment and there might be a chance for Salmonella to escape the treatment during initial steaming and pelleting. I have extracted the following from an article from The World Poultry. It is very clear that even with most stringent regulations to control this bug, it is very difficult.

"According to DFP’s figures, there were 26 Danish poultry farms where salmonella outbreaks were registered that still shipped their product abroad in 2009. By doing so the producers were able to avoid violating the stringent requirements that ensure no salmonella-infected poultry is sold to Danish consumers".

Best Regards,
D.C.Hettiarachchi - Sri Lanka

Dear D.C.Hettiarachchi
I though you were discussing ways to eliminate salmonella on basis on scientific investigation. Now I realize that you go for a more broad discussion of the subject with reference the news media. This is not really my field since I am not a journalist and I don't have time to do research on the true nature of the press stories you refer.
Best regards, Henrik Christensen