The epidemiology of Salmonella dublin infection in a dairy herd: II. Serology

Abstract

SUMMARYA number of serological tests were evaluated in a study of Salmonella dublin infection in a dairy herd. None of the tests used detected either of the two carrier animals from which Salmonella dublin was isolated at slaughter 7 and 17 months after the herd infection. The complement fixation tests used proved to be a better guide to the presence of recent herd infection than the conventional ‘0’ or ‘H’ agglutination tests.

The epidemiology of Salmonella dublin infection in a dairy herd: I. Excretion and persistence of the organism

“…S. dublin was isolated from scrapings taken from two of the stalls at the bottom of the byre which had been used by the court cows, but currently was occupied by cows G17 and S34. The organism was not recovered from R28's stall and neither of the cows previously standing in R28 or S34's stalls could be incriminated as infected either on serological grounds (Lawson et al 1974), or by the detection of faecal excretion. Following this, all the byre stalls were thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.…”

“…Ten cows known to have been faecal exeretors or to have had raised serological titres (Lawson et al 1974), have been examined at slaughter. The details of these adults are given in Table 4.…”

“…The following account is a description of the steps taken in attempting to eliminate the infection from the herd and the relevant epidemiological observations made during this period. The serological tests carried out during this investigation are the subject of a separate paper (Lawson, Wooding & McPherson, 1974). The farm and 8tock The farm steading is a mixture of traditional farm buildings and a newer but largely standard byre, court and calf house.…”