Studies of contamination of three broiler breeder houses with Salmonella enteritidis before and after cleansing and disinfection

Three broiler breeder houses on three different sites were sampled before and after cleansing and disinfection. None of the farms achieved total elimination of Salmonella enteritidis from the poultry house environment but substantial improvements were seen when errors in the cleansing and disinfection protocol in the first house had been corrected. Fundamental errors such as over-dilution and inconsistent application of disinfectants were observed despite supervision of the process by technical advisors. In each of the three poultry units failure to eliminate a mouse population that was infected with S. enteritidis was likely to be the most important hazard for the next flock.