Authors: Barron, Ursula Gonzales¹; Soumpasis, Ilias¹; Butler, Francis¹; Duffy, Geraldine²

Source: Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 72, Number 2, February 2009 , pp. 286-294(9)

Publisher: International Association for Food Protection

Abstract:

Some attempts have been made to elucidate the association between positive serology and Salmonella detection by bacterial culture in individual pigs and pig herds. This study aimed to appraise whether the existing knowledge on such association provides grounds for the utilization of serology monitoring data for predicting Salmonella subclinical infection of pigs entering the abattoir. Serology test results of pig carcasses (taken at abattoirs) originating from 436 representative active herds in Ireland were utilized to estimate the overall cecal Salmonella carriage of Irish slaughter pigs. To this effect, two separate simulations were conducted using (i) herd-level regression data and (ii) animal-level sensitivity (0.2890) and specificity (0.8895) data, which were extracted from published articles. The herd-level approach estimated a moderate prevalence of cecal Salmonella carriage of 0.222 (σ = 0.094; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.069 to 0.431), which matched closely the mean prevalence value from the surveys' validation data of Salmonella-positive cecal samples (n = 1,098) obtained at Irish abattoirs (0.215; 95% CI: 0.192 to 0.240). The animal-level simulation generated an output distribution with slightly more uncertainty (σ = 0.102 and 95% CI: 0.146 to 0.537) and a higher estimate of cecal carriage (0.312), which was an effect of the low relative sensitivity of serology, common under field conditions. While the herd-level simulation appeared to be technically more appropriate, since its correlation is only moderate, further elucidation of other factors related to subclinical infection should be attained for their incorporation in prospective dynamic on-farm models, which would be useful in the ultimate goal of estimating the risk of carcass contamination during slaughter.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Biosystems Engineering, U.C.D. School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland 2: Food Safety Department, Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre, Dublin 15, Ireland

Publication date: 2009-02-01

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  First published in 1937, the Journal of Food Protection^®, is a refereed monthly publication. Each issue contains scientific research and authoritative review articles reporting on a variety of topics in food science pertaining to food safety and quality. The Journal is internationally recognized as the leading publication in the field of food microbiology with a readership exceeding 11,000 scientists from 70 countries. The Journal of Food Protection^® is indexed in Index Medicus, Current Contents, BIOSIS, PubMed, Medline, and many others.
  
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