The United States and Denmark are at war. Not against each other, but against a common enemy – Salmonella on poultry products. Recently, there has been attention in the media about Denmark’s attempts to eradicate Salmonella from its poultry supply.
Like Denmark, the U.S. poultry industry and the federal government recognize that Salmonella is a very serious issue and we use the best science, data and technologies available to protect public health.
Like Denmark, the U.S. poultry industry and federal agencies are waging this war on multiple fronts by taking a comprehensive approach to food safety, attacking Salmonella in breeder flocks, poultry farms, chicken feed and processing facilities. There are many battle tactics commonly deployed in each country to wage our respective wars on Salmonella, including vaccination programs, feeding probiotics, heat treatment of feed, biosecurity measures and rodent and insect control on the farms.
But there are different challenges here in the U.S. and in Denmark, too. An important caveat is that not all Salmonella are pathogenic to humans, and the methods of measuring Salmonella prevalence cannot be trusted as equivalent between countries. Read More