Why vaccinate against Salmonella?

Vaccination as part of a Salmonella control program contributes to the achievement of Salmonella free poultry meat and eggs. Live and inactivated Salmonella vaccines are available.

Vaccination against Salmonella protects chickens from:

  • Infection or re-infection through vermin and the environment.
  • Infection from contaminated feed.
  • Spread of an undetected infection.
  • Spread of infection in the hatchery, mainly in the hatchers. The offspring of vaccinated birds are protected by maternal antibodies.
  • Spread of infection in a flock where a few chickens are not protected.

The use of Nobilis® Salenvac in the UK Salmonella control program successfully reduced the amount of Salmonella  found in poultry products.

Read more about

Salmonella control and prevention in the poultry industry

EFSA Report (October 2004)

Taken from the EFSA website

Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards on the requests from the Commission related to the use of vaccines for the control of Salmonella in poultry.

European Community legislation on food hygiene and control of zoonoses includes a number of provisions that seek to control and prevent the Salmonella contamination of foodstuffs.

The basis for the successful control of Salmonella infections in poultry farms is good farming and hygiene practices and the testing and removal of positive flocks from production. Vaccination of chickens is regarded as an additional measure to increase the resistance of birds against Salmonella exposure and decrease shedding of Salmonella.

Salmonella vaccines currently authorized for use in poultry in the Member states have been authorised on the basis of the mutual recognition procedure. Both live and inactivated Salmonella vaccines are available. At the moment, the extent of vaccination in different Member States differs considerably.

The panel concluded that vaccination is useful in control programs targeting S.Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium. The use of vaccination and different vaccines (live and/or inactivated) is dependent on the prevalence of these serovars in the flock, and the type of flock involved (breeders, layers or broilers).

See full report below.

See EFSA Report (October 2004) (pdf 563 kb)