06 May 2026
A comprehensive study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reveals that expanding flock reduction targets to include all significant Salmonella strains, rather than just the two most common, could reduce human infections linked to turkey meat by a staggering 83%.
For years, European food safety efforts have focused heavily on two primary serovars: Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium. While these remain major public health concerns, the turkey industry presents a more diverse bacterial landscape. Approximately 2.6% of all human salmonellosis cases in the EU, roughly 135,100 true cases annually, are attributed to the turkey reservoir. The serovars in turkeys that contribute most to human illness are S. Enteritidis, S. Kentucky, S. Typhimurium, S. Newport, S. Virchow, and S. Saintpaul. The study compared the current "transitional" target (1% prevalence for only two strains) against a broader target. While the current target offers a negligible 0.4% reduction in human cases, setting a 1% limit for all considered serovars would result in an 83.2% reduction in turkey-associated human infections. This shift in strategy from targeting specific strains to a comprehensive "all-serovar" approach could represent a major milestone in food safety.
EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ); Scientific Opinion on an estimation of the public health impact of setting a new target for the reduction of Salmonella in turkeys. EFSA Journal 2012;10(4):2616
