Abstract
BackgroundSalmonella contaminated animal feed is a major source for introducing Salmonella into the animal derived food chain. Because soybeans frequently are contaminated with Salmonella, soybean meal used as animal feed material, a by-product of a “crushing plant” which produces oil from soybeans, can be important source of Salmonella in the animal feed.We report the successful control of Salmonella from 1994 to 2012 in a Norwegian crushing plant producing soybean meal from imported soy beans. The results are based on an officially supervised HACCP based program including annual testing of around 4000 samples.ResultsDuring the 19-year period, 34% of samples collected during unloading of ships delivering soybeans yielded Salmonella; the proportion of samples from ships that yielded Salmonella varied from 12-62% each year. Dust samples from all shiploads from South America yielded Salmonella. In total 94 serovars of Salmonella were isolated, including nine (90%) of the EU 2012 top ten serovars isolated from clinical cases of salmonellosis in humans, including major animal pathogenic serovars like Spp. Typhimurium and Enteritidis.The effectiveness of the HACCP based control was indicated by a low prevalence of Salmonella contamination in the clean area of the plant, which is considered to be the main reason for the successful prevention of Salmonella in the end product. Despite extensive testing, no sample from the finished soybean meal product was found to be Salmonella contaminated.ConclusionsThis study shows that a HAACP-based control program in a soybean crushing plant can produce Salmonella free soybean meal despite frequent Salmonella contamination of raw soybeans. That approach is suggested as an effective way to minimize the risk of Salmonella exposure of the animal feed mills and contamination of the subsequent animal feed chain.
Highlights
Salmonella contaminated animal feed is a major source for introducing Salmonella into the animal derived food chain
The plant has a declared ambition to deliver only Salmonella-safe animal feed materials to customers/animal feed mills. This means that in addition to the HACCP programme described below, the product is not used in the production of animal feed until it has tested negative for Salmonella contamination
The results are first presented as an overall isolation of Salmonella from soy beans and the internal and external environments of the crushing plant during the whole period 1994–2012 (Figure 2).This is followed by the result of the HACCP based sampling during one year (2012), which is representative of the most recent years (Table 1) and in Table 2 further key data on isolation of Salmonella for the period 2000–2012
Summary
Salmonella contaminated animal feed is a major source for introducing Salmonella into the animal derived food chain. Because soybeans frequently are contaminated with Salmonella, soybean meal used as animal feed material, a by-product of a “crushing plant” which produces oil from soybeans, can be important source of Salmonella in the animal feed. Salmonella contaminated animal feed is a major source for introducing Salmonella into the animal feed and food chain [1,2]. A striking example emphasizing the potential of contaminated animal feed to act as a source of Salmonella infections in humans occurred when S. Agona emerged as a public health problem in several countries due to the spread of contaminated imported fish meal used as animal feed. It is estimated that up to 2001 the serotype caused more than one million human illnesses in the USA alone since it was introduced in animal feed 1968 [1]
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