Pilot study on the prevalence of salmonella in slaughter pigs in Germany: III. Detection of salmonellae by PCR, serovar distribution and population analysis of isolates

In a survey on the prevalence of Salmonellae in German slaughter pigs, almost 12,000 pig carcasses were investigated by standard cultural, immunological and PCR technique\u27s. Seven abattoirs distributed all over Germany were included into the study. Each abattoir was investigated on ten weekly sampling occasions. In total 6% of all slaughter pigs were positive in faecal or lymphnode material. This number increased to I 0% when surface swabs were evaluated as well. From all sources nearly 1400 bacterial isolates were obtained and characterised by traditional and molecular typing methods. Typing at the National Reference Laboratory for Salmonella (NRL) follows a hierarchic protocol. At the beginning the serotype is determined by using poly- and monoclonal antisera for standard slide agglutination. In total 28 serotypes could be detected