TDK conference 2011

Salmonellosis is one of the most important zoonoses in Hungary and in the European Union as well. Because of the sever and frequent human diseases in Europe, the European Community started a program in the 90’s, requiring the member states to lower the prevalence of salmonellosis in poultry flocks. After the millennium this program became more detailed, so many new laws were to create. Every member state had to follow the community laws and they were obliged to start their own national Salmonella eradication programs. At the same time the Hungarian agricultural ministry created a guide for the Salmonella eradication in poultry flocks in 1995 already, and therefore, the Hungarian authorities have monitored the flocks since 1997. Nevertheless, the compulsory national eradication program in Hungary started only in 2004, after joining the European Union.

In this essay the history of the Salmonella eradication program, the community provisions before and now, and the relevant Hungarian laws after joining the EU are reviewed. The Hungarian national eradication program is presented in details, and I review how the Hungarian authorities work, how the veterinarians have to collect samples for the monitoring analysis, which laboratories analyse these samples, and what are the consequences, if a sample contained relevant Salmonella serotypes.

In the EU it has been compulsory to monitor some specific zoonoses, among others the salmonellosis, since 2003. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) summarize and analyse the data derived from these monitoring, therefore professionals can control how successful were the yearly programs of the member states. Present studies show, that the eradication programs successfully lowered the prevalence of salmonellosis in poultry flocks everywhere in the European Union, but the programs are very expensive.

In Hungary, before the eradication program the prevalence of the relevant Salmonella serotypes was 6,73% in breeding hen flocks, 33,54% in laying hen flocks and 65,8% in broiler flocks. The successful eradication lowered the prevalence of these serotypes below 5% in the flocks mentioned above, although the costs of the programs were higher than 8 million euro, and only half of this was posteriorly financed by the EU. After the breeding and fattening turkey flocks have joined the Salmonella eradication program, the costs grew much higher, and this tendency is likely to continue, if the eradication begins in the swine and cattle flocks, as well. However, the Salmonella bacteria have weak resistance against heat, therefore, an informative campaign about the proper cooking technics targeting the customers would lower significantly the prevalence of the human salmonellosis in the EU at a lower cost.