COST ACTION 920

Inventory of QMRA Studies in Europe

Pathogen

 Salmonella Enteritidis

Country or region

 Denmark

Transmission route

 From

 eggs

To

 consumer

Specific product(s)

 eggs

End-point(s)

 consumer

Bibliographic reference

Unpublished. The assessment is part of a larger, ongoing economic assessment.

Abstract

In 2002, it was estimated by the Salmonella source account method, that almost 200 registered human cases of salmonellosis were due to consumption of Danish produced meat (beef, pork and poultry), while the number of registered cases due to consumption of contaminated eggs was estimated to be 636. Currently, table egg producing facilities are sampled every 9 weeks, and a possible improvement could be to reduce the time between sampling rounds.

Based on a number of assumptions concerning spread of infection and management factors, the relative effect of changing the sampling frequency from every 9th to 5th week was simulated. Since Danish table egg producing flocks primarily are found to be infected with Salmonella Enteritidis, we chose to base our model on the number and sizes of those flocks from which S. Enteritidis was isolated in 2002.

The model estimated that the probability finding an infected flock positive is 99% if tested after the 6^th week of infection. The production of infected table eggs peaks around the 7^th week of infection where 6.5% (CI90%: 5.2%-7.8%) of the produced eggs will contain Salmonella. From the 9th week of infection, approx. 1% of production will be contaminated and this level will be maintained until slaughter.

Sampling every 5 weeks will result in a reduction of contaminated eggs to 65% (CI90%: 41% - 93%) of the level with the current sampling scheme of testing every 9 weeks. 

Status

 Completed

Availability

 from contact person

Institute

Contact person

 Helle Korsgaard (hko@dfvf.dk)

Partners

Lill Andersen, Danish Research Institute of Food Economics