Abattoir-specific ways of implementing risk-based meat inspection methods in Germany

In the European Union serological and/or bacteriological monitoring results on zoonoses are to be taken into account for the risk assessment of slaughter pig herds in the framework of the risk-based meat inspection. Furthermore, the European food safety strategy pursues the additional goal to increase herd health. The new understanding of “One Health” (healthy animals and healthy people) and the new paradigm of assuring safe food (responsibility of food producers, prevention, risk-orientation, process-optimization, and continuous improvement) require new concepts for replacing the traditional meat inspection at the slaughter line with a risk-based meat inspection focusing at the whole food chain, and for modern and proactive veterinary diagnostics

Risk-based meat inspection: Implementation experiences in Germany and integration of animal-oriented welfare criteria

The paper describes the experiences from seven pilot projects in Germany on implementing the risk-based meat inspection: analysing the status quo per slaughter house, defining the specific risks of the region of the supplying herds, creating the preconditions for recording and exchanging a meaningful set of data for the food chain information including animal health and welfare criteria, training of risk-oriented logistic slaughter and adding targeted inspection procedures in case of increased food safety risks indicated for entire herds or slaughter batches

Pre-harvest Food Safety as Integral Part of Quality Assurance Systems in the Pork Chain from Stable to Table

The liberalization of the global trade with food, and the fact that the consumers in the industrialized countries are more and more demanding food to be not only economical, but also healthy, tasty, and safe, while at the same time respecting animal welfare and the environment, are the two major determinants of rather drastic changes occurring in agriculture throughout the world. The current quantity-oriented food production (agricultural bulk-commodity supply of agricultural raw products into the food production chain) that guarantees the nutrient supply for a nation is changing into an international quality-oriented food system (vertical supply chains for the production of identity preserved food). The main driver of this development is without doubt the never-ending chain of food safety break-downs: Salmonella Enteritidis in eggs, BSE in the UK, E. coli 0157:H7, the emergence of Salmonella Typhimurium DTI 04, the dioxin scandal in Belgium, and the BSE-scares in several continental European countries, especially in Germany. These events led to an increasing demand for transparency and traceability of the entire food production chain, including the agricultural primary production

The influence of good farming practice on the occurrence of Salmonella on pig farms

Compliance to good farming practice is a substantial issue to increase animal health and food quality in pork production. In this case-control study, as part of a general framework, farmers were asked six questions via a face-to-face questionaire, in order to determine their motivation for Salmonella control on their farms. The cases were in the so called Category III (n=104) of the German Salmonella monitoring system; the controls were in Category 1 (n=67)

A comparative multi-farm study on Salmonella risk factors for pig farms in a high pig density area in Germany

In this study, herds with a high frequency of animals with antibodies against Salmonella are compared to herds with a low frequency of such animals in order to evaluate the relevance of presumed risk factors and/or to identify so far unknown risk factors. A standardised, validated questionnaire was used to document a multitude of characteristics from each farm. Faeces and environmental samples were also gathered with the intention of corroborating the salmonella-specific relevance of the potential risk factors as queried by the survey. These samples were analyzed by means of Real-Time PCR

The Early Colonization pattern of S. typhimurium in pigs after oral intake

Several papers on the persistence of Salmonella infections and the duration of the Salmonella carrier state in various species have been published (Smith and Jones, 1967; Wood et al., 1989; Fedorka-Cray and Stabel, 1993; Bailey, 1994), however, little is known about the early distribution of Salmonella in pigs immediately after their oral intake. This knowledge is important for the decision on which tissue should be sampled for the Salmonella monitoring of swine herds at slaughter. Furthermore, it is needed in order to decide, whether a Salmonella finding at slaughter (either from live pigs in the lairage or from carcasses on the line) indicates a Salmonella-positive herd or is merely the result of a fresh infection during the transport and/or in the lairage

Investigations into Salmonella Serovar and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns in Commercial Swine Herds.

The goal of this study was to monitor 36 US commercial swine herds at slaughter to determine farm specific Salmonella serovar patterns and farm specific antimicrobial resistance patterns. During this study the following isolates (228) were identified: S. agona(IO); S. anatum(l7), S. derby(64), S. enteriditis(1), S. harthford(2), S. heidelberg (5), S. infantis(2),S. mbandaka(3), S. monophasic(2), S. muenchen(3), S. muenster(2), S. ohio(4), S. oranienburg (1), S. schwarzengrund(l), S. typhimurium(36), and S. typhimurium copenhagen(75). Isolates were tested for resistance against 17 different antimicrobials. Of the 36 herds, no detectable resistance was observed in 5 herds. Resistance to 1 antimicrobial was found in 1 herd, to 3 antimicrobials in 2 herds, to 4 antimicrobials in 4 herds, to 5 antimicrobials in 11 herds, to 6 antimicrobials in 9 herds, to 7 antimicrobials in 2 herds, and to 8 antimicrobials in 2 herds. S. typhimurium, S. typhimurium copenhagen and S. derby had the widest range of antimicrobial resistance

Coulomb correlation effects in zinc monochalcogenides

Electronic structure and band characteristics for zinc monochalcogenides with zinc-blende- and wurtzite-type structures are studied by first-principles density-functional-theory calculations with different approximations. It is shown that the local-density approximation underestimates the band gap and energy splitting between the states at the top of the valence band, misplaces the energy levels of the Zn-3d states, and overestimates the crystal-field-splitting energy. Regardless of the structure type considered, the spin-orbit-coupling energy is found to be overestimated for ZnO and underestimated for ZnS with wurtzite-type structure, and more or less correct for ZnSe and ZnTe with zinc-blende-type structure. The order of the states at the top of the valence band is found to be anomalous for ZnO in both zinc-blende- and wurtzite-type structure, but is normal for the other zinc monochalcogenides considered. It is shown that the Zn-3d electrons and their interference with the O-2p electrons are responsible for the anomalous order. The typical errors in the calculated band gaps and related parameters for ZnO originate from strong Coulomb correlations, which are found to be highly significant for this compound. The LDA+U approach is by and large found to correct the strong correlation of the Zn-3d electrons, and thus to improve the agreement with the experimentally established location of the Zn-3d levels compared with that derived from pure LDA calculations

Evaluation of the Suitability of a Commercially Available ELISA Test as a Monitoring Tool for Estimating the Salmonella Prevalence of Commercial Swine Herds

In this study we evaluate the suitability of the Salmotype® (Labordiagnostik Leipzig) Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) in swine. The study demonstrated no association between either individual or pen fecal culture and serologic status when examined by linear regression. Culture positive pigs had a tendency to be seropositive based on the individual fecal culture and only at pen and individual levels based on the pen fecal culture. Lowering the suggested cutoff of 40 % to 13 % gave an equal number of culture and seropositive individuals. Therefore further adaptation of Salmotype®to the US swine industry and further additional field studies need to be done

Phage typing and clonal analysis of Salmonella Heidelberg strains isolated from animals and other sources from Minnesota (USA) and Germany

Salmonella Heidelberg isolates has become an emerging pathogen during the 80s in the United States (Martin et al., 1989). Approximately 60% of human cases reported to the CDC in 1995 were caused by only four serovars, including S. Enteridis (24,7%), S. Typhimurium (23,5%), S. Newport (6,2%) and S. Heidelberg (5,1%), (CDC, Salmonella surveillance) and were frequently isolated from chicken and pork (Sawari et al., 2001)