Hog plant research to reduce salmonella
Food Safety Consortium researchers at Iowa State University are working on a project to determine whether lairage facilities at hog slaughter plants have minimal effective doses of salmonella.
Using a polymerase chain reaction, which is a technique for amplifying fragments of DNA sequences for laboratory analysis, the researchers were able to obtain salmonella test results on faecal samples within about six hours.
Once their results are published, lairage operators could implement sanitation procedures to bring salmonella levels down if necessary.
First results
Preliminary samples of pens in one slaughter plant indicated that the facility’s procedures reduced salmonella transmission among different groups of incoming animals. Further research will investigate whether samples from another plant show similarly effective results.
Related website:
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
