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Salmonellosis

What is salmonellosis?

Salmonella are gram-negative human and animal pathogens and can be subdivided into over 2500 types. Salmonellosis, a disease diagnosed in over 10,000 people in the UK each year, is common throughout the world.

Clinical signs in animals

Salmonellosis can occur in all species of domestic animal and manifests mainly as diarrhoea although clinical signs also include septicaemia, abortion, arthritis and respiratory disease.

Many healthy animals can also carry the organisms in their intestinal tract and may be important in the spread of infection between animals, into the environment and into the food chain.

A Guide to the National Control Programme for Salmonella in Laying Flocks is available on the Defra website.

Clinical signs in humans

People are infected by eating contaminated food or by contact with faeces from infected people or animals. Illness is characterised by watery and sometimes bloody diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, nausea and vomiting.

The predominant serovars (types) isolated from people are S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, S. Infantis, S. Hadar and S. Virchow.