About 47,000 Swedish Chickens Destroyed because of Salmonella
Source: FWN
(dated 25/08/2004)
Stockholm, August 25 – About 47,000 chickens were destroyed at a farm in southern Sweden Wednesday, after routine tests found at least one of the birds had salmonella, a bacteria that can cause illness in humans who consume the infected poultry.
It’s the first case of salmonella bacteria found in Swedish poultry this year, and only the third case since 1999, said Pia Gustafsson, a veterinarian with the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
“It’s extremely rare. We usually don’t see more than one case a year.”
Pia Gustafsson, a veterinarian with the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
The chickens, raised on a farm outside Ystad, a town on Sweden’s southernmost coast, were to be delivered to food producer Kronfaagel, which sent a veterinarian to do the standard testing that discovered the bacteria.
Kerstin Frodig, head of food quality at Kronfaagel, said all 47,000 chickens from the building where the tests were made were destroyed as a safety precaution.
Frodig said it was unclear which type of salmonella had been found at the farm. Results from an investigation into the source and type of the bacteria will likely not be finished until Friday, she said.
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