Salmonella Typhimurium CARRIAGE at slaughter AFTER an enterocolitis outbreak in a swine herd

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of slaughter pigs carrying Salmonella Typhimurium after a entericolitis outbreak in a commercial pig farm. A cross-sectional study was done during the slaughter of a batch of 86 animals. Mesenteric lymph nodes from 43 pigs were collected and pre-enriched in buffered peptone water (1:10) overnight at 37∞C Afterwards, aliquots of 1mL and 0.1mL were transferred to selenite-cystine and Rappaport-Vassiliadis broth, respectively. A loopful of each sample was streaked onto XLT4 and brilliant green agar plates, which were incubated at 37∞C for 24 hours. Salmonella was cultured in 23 out of 43 collected samples (53.48%). Salmonella Typhimurim (13 strains) and Salmonella enterica subs. enterica 1,4,5,12:i:- (10 strains) were isolated. These results indicated that the slaughter of pigs from batches previously affected by enteric salmonellosis may represent a high risk for pork contamination, since there is an positive association between infected pigs before slaughter and carcass contamination