Update of Salmonella spp. surveillance in Label Rouge poultry production in France
Résumé
With 87,923 confirmed cases of salmonellosis in humans in 2019, salmonellosis is the second most commonly reported gastrointestinal infection and an important cause of food-borne outbreaks in Europe. European Union Member States observe a Regulation (2160/2003/EC) and a Zoonoses Directive (2003/99/EC), in order to control food-borne illnesses of animal origin. In this context, the monitoring performed by the “Label Rouge” Poultry Association (SYNALAF) since twenty years focusses on the surveillance of Salmonella spp. on poultry carcasses at the slaughterhouse and in the environment of live birds for poultry, guinea fowl, capon and turkey productions (at the farm level).
The French National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Salmonella analyzed the data collected by the SYNALAF in France between 2017 and 2020. For carcasses, the abattoirs slaughtering “Label Rouge” poultry were located in different regions of France. Each control of Salmonella consists of collecting five samples, individually analyzed, resulting in a minimum of 60 samples per abattoir per year. For live birds, the operator did sampling for each flock during the 6 weeks preceding slaughtering. Faecal material was collected by walking with boot swabs on different areas of the poultry house. At farms, the prevalence found differed according to animal productions. For example, the percentage of Salmonella contamination for live-turkey ranged from 5.9% to 11. 4%, for capon from 2% to 4.3% and stay stable (± 3%) for guinea fowl over the last 4 years. At the slaughterhouse, Salmonella contamination of free-range broiler carcasses is low and represented usually less than 3% of carcasses. The low prevalence of Salmonella in slaughterhouses correlated with the results obtained in free-range broiler flocks by the SYNALAF (< 2.2% from 2017 to 2020). Nevertheless, recurrent contamination issues, with the same Salmonella serotype, have been observed in one abattoir over the last 2 years which presented a high level of contamination (up to 30 % of the samples). There is no link between the contamination of live flock and the slaughterhouse, highlighting the hypothesis of a persistent Salmonella contamination at the slaughterhouse.
This surveillance gives an extended view of Salmonella contamination in free-range poultry production and shows the importance of the application of EU regulations on Salmonella and compliance with biosecurity measures on farms and at the slaughterhouse.