title: Salmonella enterica in superficial cervical (prescapular) and ileocecal lymph nodes of slaughtered pigs.
abstract: Because certain lymph nodes may be incorporated in food products, the presence of Salmonella enterica in these tissues could pose a food safety risk. We designed this two-part study to assess the prevalence of Salmonella in prescapular lymph nodes from normal slaughtered swine. Prescapular lymph nodes were collected from 300 systematically selected pigs in study 1 and, in study 2, from 75 pigs distributed among 10 herds. For study 2, pooled bacterial cultures were also completed on ileocecal lymph nodes, combining tissue from five pigs per pool (n = 60 pools). No Salmonella was detected in study 1 among prescapular lymph nodes (95% confidence interval, 0.0 to 1.16%). Salmonella was not detected in 75 prescapular lymph nodes from study 2, although Salmonella was detected in 5 of 10 herds in ileocecal lymph nodes. We conclude that prescapular lymph nodes posed a limited food safety risk in this population of pigs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1102, USA. pbbahnson@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Bahnson
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Latifa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Omran
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D005516:Food Microbiology; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000382:microbiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology