Pre-housing Salmonella results essential

Published on : 22 Aug 2024

The Lion Code states that swab tests should be taken‘post cleaning’

It is crucial that producers ensure they receive the results of their house swab tests before placing their pullets.

The requirement for pre-housing swabs to be taken from a poultry house has long been a part of the Lion Code. However, this was amended in the updated version 8 of the code – announced in June last year – which requires (Section 6:E3): “The environment of the poultry house must be sampled for Salmonella Enteritidis, or Salmonella Typhimurium, or monophasic Typhimurium contamination. Therefore, a full hygiene monitoring programme is to be completed before replacement birds are taken onto the farm. The results of the samples submitted for Salmonella testing must be available and be negative for a regulated Salmonella serovar before restocking”.

Inevitably this has led to longer turnaround times and therefore added costs for producers. Tom Davies, of Country Fresh Pullets, told us: “Every day that a house is empty it is losing money and so naturally producers want as tight a turnaround as possible. Some multi-tier sites are turning around in as little as 7 days, but it takes between 4-7 days to turn around a salmonella test. Producers need to budget for a longer turnaround and so therefore need at least 2 weeks to make sure they have that negative result back”.

It is crucial that producers do add this time to their turnaround as placing pullets without receiving a negative result would be extremely risky. If a flock were to be housed before the site receives a negative result for a regulated Salmonella serovar (S.enteritidis, S. typhimurium, or monophasic S. typhimurium) and the result should then be confirmed positive, this would require the suspension of the positive house from the Lion scheme. As it is a requirement that all houses on site are Lion, this would in effect remove the site from the Lion scheme for that flock cycle. Receiving a positive result post-housing would also potentially lead to compulsory slaughter for the flock with no compensation available.

In December’s Ranger, the then Chief Executive of the BEIC Mark Williams wrote: “We understand that the process will potentially add 5 days to a turnround to ensure that the results are received in time. However, veterinary advice is that it is simply too risky to place ‘clean’ pullets into a house without knowing its Salmonella status. It would certainly be very risky from a financial point of view and added to this, there could be some awkward questions asked by an insurance provider if birds were housed before the house had tested negative and the flock subsequently went positive. The majority of vets would also agree that by allowing the house to rest for a few extra days can help to reduce the general disease challenge to the replacement flock and production could benefit”.

Mr Williams also stated that the amendment to the Lion Code helps to protect producers since the option of confirmatory testing was withdrawn. He wrote: “APHA have withdrawn the right of a producer to request one of the three so-called ‘confirmatory sampling methods’ (7 bootswabs/handswabs, 4,000 eggs or 300 carcasses). This means that if the operator or official sample is found to be positive for a regulated Salmonella serovar, it is in effect ‘one strike and out’. If birds were to be placed in a house before a negative result was received, which subsequently came back positive, the potential of the flock becoming infected is significantly increased, especially as it ages. BEIC has long argued that the current government policy is totally unacceptable and we continue to lobby government for confirmatory testing to be reinstated. Afterall, consumers eat eggs. There have been a number of examples where we do not believe a positive sample (especially in the case of ST) reflected the health status of the flock. In summary, the amendment protects producers as well as the Lion scheme in general”.

In regard to specifically when the swab tests should be taken, Mr Williams said: “The Lion Code states ‘post cleaning’, therefore this could be carried out after washing with a detergent and prior to disinfection. Whilst the best approach would be to conduct swabbing after full disinfection, taking swabs part-way through the cleaning and disinfection programme could help ensure results are available without having to extend turnround times”.