Abstract:
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Sampling techniques to detect airborne Salmonella species (spp.) in two pilot scale broiler houses were compared. Broilers were inoculated at seven days of age with a marked strain of Salmonella enteritidis. The rearing ...[+]
Sampling techniques to detect airborne Salmonella species (spp.) in two pilot scale broiler houses were compared. Broilers were inoculated at seven days of age with a marked strain of Salmonella enteritidis. The rearing cycle lasted 42 days during the summer. Airborne Salmonella spp. were sampled weekly using impaction, gravitational settling, and impingement techniques. Additionally,Salmonella spp. were sampled on feeders, drinkers, walls, and in the litter. Environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity, and airborne particulate matter (PM) concentration) were monitored during the rearing cycle. The presence of Salmonella spp. was determined by culture-dependent and molecular methods. No cultivable Salmonella spp. were recovered from the poultry houses' surfaces, the litter, or the air before inoculation. After inoculation, cultivable Salmonella spp. were recovered from the surfaces and in the litter. Airborne cultivable Salmonella spp. were detected using impaction and gravitational settling one or two weeks after the detection of Salmonella spp. in the litter. No cultivable Salmonella spp. were recovered using impingement based on culture-dependent techniques. At low airborne concentrations, the use of impingement for the quantification or detection of cultivable airborne Salmonella spp. is not recommended. In these cases, a combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods is recommended. These data are valuable to improve current measures to control the transmission of pathogens in livestock environments and for optimising the sampling and detection of airborne Salmonella spp. in practical conditions.
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Thanks:
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The research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project No. GASFARM-2 AGL2008-04125, Madrid). The authors express their thanks to the Centro de Tecnologia Animal (IVIA, Spain) and its staff for ...[+]
The research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project No. GASFARM-2 AGL2008-04125, Madrid). The authors express their thanks to the Centro de Tecnologia Animal (IVIA, Spain) and its staff for providing the broiler installations and collaborating during this study. We are also grateful to the Livestock Research Group of Wageningen UR, The Netherlands, for their equipment support. The authors also wish to thank the Campus de Excelencia Internacional of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.
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