Abstract

Human salmonellosis originating from pork is an important zoonotic disease, and the objective of this study was to determine whether the Salmonella shedding was lower for pigs herds provided wet-feed compared to those on traditional dry rations. Four wet-feeding farms and six dry-feeding farms were selected. Individual faecal and feed samples were collected (faces 30, feed 10 from pigs per farm), and analysed for the presence ofSalmonella. The results showed a low level of on-farm Salmonella shedding (overall prevalence from faecal samples 2.0% as well as 1.0% of the feed samples). The overall prevalence was 30% in studied farms (3 out of 10). Two of the dry-feeding farms (33.33%) tested positive compared to only one of the wet-feeding farms (25%). Salmonella was isolated in 5 of 180 faecal samples from farms with dry-feeding, compared to farms with wet-feeding where it was isolated in only one sample out of 120. Salmonella was also recovered from the feed on one dry-feeding farms but were not isolated from the farms using wet-feeding. These findings indicate that farms with wet-feeding are associated with lower (p<0.01) prevalence of Salmonella.

Key words: Pigs, Salmonella, feeding, prevalence, risk-factor.

Abbreviation

BPW, Buffered peptone water; RVB, Rappaport Vassiliadis broth; DSE,delayed secondary enrichment; BG, brilliant green; TSI, triple sugar iron.