SWEDEN - Researchers in Uppsala compared cultural methods for the detection of Salmonella in feed and feed ingredients, and found their methods to be equally sensitive and specific, although the detection levels in different materials varied considerably.
Animal feed as a source of infection to food producing animals is much debated. In order to increase our present knowledge about possible feed transmission it is important to know that the present isolation methods for Salmonella are reliable also for feed materials.
Salmonella control of food-producing animals was started in Sweden in the late 1950s. The present control programme for feed, based on hazard analysis of critical control point (HACCP) principles was initiated by the feed industry in 1991.
Sevinc Koyuncu and Per Haggblom from the National Veterinary Institute at Uppsala in Sweden compared the ability of the standard method used for isolation of Salmonella in feed in the Nordic countries, the NMKL71 method (Nordic Committee on Food Analysis) was compared to the Modified Semisolid Rappaport Vassiliadis method (MSRV) and the international standard method (EN ISO 6579:2002).
Five different feed materials were investigated, namely wheat grain, soybean meal, rape seed meal, palm kernel meal, pellets of pig feed and also scrapings from a feed mill elevator.
Four different levels of the Salmonella serotypes S. Typhimurium, S. Cubana and S. Yoruba were added to each feed material.
