The prevalence of Salmonella infections in laying hen flocks producing eggs and their impact on the public health

<table style="height: 534px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="664" align="left"><tbody><tr><td height="534" align="left" valign="top"><p>Since 2008, Slovakia has implemented the National control program of <em>Salmonella</em> infections in laying hen flocks. This program requires the farm operators to monitor and investigate the invasive types of <em>Salmonella</em> (<em>S. Enteritidis</em> and <em>S.</em><em>&nbsp;Typhimurium</em>) according to STN ISO 6579. The aim of this study was to perform a microbiological examination of dust and chicken droppings samples of laying hens in the Trenč&iacute;n region for the presence of <em>Salmonella</em> by Horizontal method according to STN ISO 6579: 2002, to compare results with the statistics across Slovakia and selected EU countries and to evaluate the impact of official controls of salmonellosis in animals and humans.&nbsp; In the years 2009 - 2013 in the Trenč&iacute;n region, 730 samples of dust from the conveyor belts and droppings of laying hens were taken to determine the prevalence of <em>Salmonella</em> in individual rearings. In these years, the incidence of positive samples was found from 0% to 29.17%. For the period from 2009 till 2013 was reported 22833 salmonellosis cases in human population of Slovakia, while in the Trenč&iacute;n region it was 2636. Five-year EU-trend (2009 - 2013) showed a statistically significant decrease of salmonellosis occurence (with a mean reduction of 12% per year). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed in order to provide in-depth epidemiological assessment of salmonellosis cases in Trenčin region in relation to selected characters: etiological agens, transmission mechanism, age, location as well as seasonality of infection.</p></td></tr></tbody></table> <br />