Salmonella shedding in pigs
The risk factors associated with Salmonella shedding from the serotype Typhimurium or similar strains were more related to animal factors, whereas those associated with other serotypes were more related to environmental factors.
This was the conclusion of research of the Universidade de Porto as a result of EU regulations, imposing a reduction in the prevalence of Salmonella in pigs. Control measures currently recommended for Salmonella are not serotype-specific – therefore the researchers aimed to find out whether risk factors for different Salmonella serotypes are different.
The aim of this study was to investigate potential risk factors for two groups of Salmonella species serotypes using pen faecal samples from Portuguese breeding pig holdings.
The significant associations found for category ‘serotype Typhimurium’ or similar were: age of breeding sows, size of the herd, number of pigs/pen and source of semen. For the category ‘other serotypes’ the significant associations found were: control of rodents, region of the country, source of semen, breeding sector room and source of feed.
