Some aspects of control of salmonella infection in poultry for minimising contamination in the food chain

Abstract

Salmonellosis is one of the most frequent zoonotic diseases in humans and is associated with major public health and economic losses globally. Eggs and poultry meat represent one of the main sources of infection. Chickens are considered as a main carrier for salmonella and infected birds rarely show any clinical signs. The control of salmonella in commercial poultry production is essential because of the economic and public health consequences. Accordingly, the current European approach is based on a farm-to-fork strategy, in which each sector implements measures to minimise or reduce salmonella contamination. Control measures are most effective at the source, i.e. at farm level. Measures to decrease the prevalence of Salmonella enterica in poultry farms are expected to result in a lower incidence of human salmonellosis. The pre-harvest phase involves the use of all available tools, such as vaccination, implementation of biosecurity measures and additional efforts to achieve salmonella-free feed production. Amongst those tools, nutritional approaches can greatly contribute to reduce salmonella shedding and to minimise salmonella during processing, thereby producing safer food. Due to the high number of introductory sources for salmonella to infect a flock, various intervention strategies have to be implemented to minimise risks. Recently, it has been shown that salmonella impacts the gut integrity in chickens, therefore it is important to develop new strategies or combine different strategies to improve gut barrier function and gut health. This review describes certain selected strategies that may be used in farm control programmes in poultry.