Abstract
Poultry feed is a leading source of Salmonella infection in poultry. In Switzerland, heat-treated feed is used to reduce Salmonella incursions into flocks in conventional poultry production. By contrast, organic feed is only treated with organic acids. In 2019, the Swiss National Reference Center for Enteropathogenic Bacteria identified the rare serovar S. Jerusalem from samples of organic soya feed. Further, in July 2020, the European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed published a notification of the detection of S. Jerusalem in soya expeller from Italy. During 2020, seven S. Jerusalem isolates from seven different poultry productions distributed over six cantons in Switzerland were reported, providing further evidence of a possible outbreak. Using whole-genome sequencing (WGS), S. Jerusalem isolates from feed and from animals in Switzerland were further characterized and compared to S. Jerusalem from organic poultry farm environments in Italy. WGS results showed that feed isolates and isolates from Swiss and Italian poultry flocks belonged to the sequence type (ST)1028, grouped in a very tight cluster, and were closely related. This outbreak highlights the risk of spreading Salmonella by feed and emphasizes the need for a heat-treatment process for feed, also in organic poultry production.
Highlights
Salmonella are Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria belonging to the family of Enterobacteriaceae
The main reservoirs of Salmonella are the gastro-intestinal tracts of healthy farm animals and humans, but Salmonella are widely distributed in the environment [4]
The draft genomes of the 16 Salmonella isolates consisted of 4,725,864 to 4,787,949 bp divided over 34–43 contigs with an N50 between 287,235 and 402,221 bp (Table 2)
Summary
Salmonella are Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria belonging to the family of Enterobacteriaceae. They are facultatively anaerobic and form peritrichous flagella for motility. The genus Salmonella contains two species, S. enterica and S. bongori [1]. S. enterica consists of six subspecies based on genomic and biochemical modifications. The whole group is complex and includes more than 2500 different serovars [2]. Salmonella play an important role in both human and animal health [3]. The main reservoirs of Salmonella are the gastro-intestinal tracts of healthy farm animals and humans, but Salmonella are widely distributed in the environment [4]
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