Salmonella infection risk associated with outdoor organic pig production

Summary

Organic pig production provides an animal-friendly alternative to conventional production systems, but one of the concerns associated with the outdoor production form is an increased exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter in the environment that potentially impairs the food safety of organic pork. The available data on Salmonella infections in organic pigs is scarce, but seroprevalence has indicated a higher occurrence of Salmonella in outdoor pigs. The potential beneficial effects of e.g. late weaning, low animal density and roughage with respect to resistance to Salmonella infections are discussed on basis of an experimental infection study. The persistence of Salmonella in a contaminated paddock environment constitutes a potential infection risk for new pigs introduced into the paddock. The detection of several Salmonella types in pigs and environment, besides the test strain, indicates that outdoor pigs are exposed to Salmonella, although the source of these Salmonella types was not readily identified. Maintaining a good health in the pigs, and minimizing the build up of high contamination levels by isolation of heavily infected pigs, and cleaning of potential reservoirs for persistence of contamination like e.g. the shelter huts, should help to reduce Salmonella problems in outdoor pig production.