Proceedings

Detection of Salmonella antibodies in asymptomatic fattening pigs varies depending on the test and the matrix used

Authors: E. Felin (University of Helsinki) , M. Fredriksson-Ahomaa (University of Helsinki)

Abstract

Human salmonellosis is a common meat-borne infection in Europe including Finland. Around 10 % of the domestic cases are due to contaminated pork in Finland. Salmonella infection in fattening pigs is mostly asymptomatic and therefore identification of Salmonella-positive pigs is usually not possible at the slaughterhouse. Serological testing has been established in some European countries to identify fattening farms producing Salmonella-infected animals. The presence of antibodies to Salmonella can easily be detected by commercial ELISA kit using blood or meat juice samples collected at the slaughterhouse (Felin et al. 2015, 2019). However, reliable and comparable commercial ELISA tests are of major importance for serological monitoring (Felin et al. 2017). In this work, presence of Salmonella antibodies were studied in blood and meat juice samples of Finnish fattening pigs with two commercial ELISA tests.

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How to Cite: Felin, E. & Fredriksson-Ahomaa, M. (2019) “Detection of Salmonella antibodies in asymptomatic fattening pigs varies depending on the test and the matrix used”, SafePork. 13(1). doi: https://doi.org//safepork.11437