Salmonella: The European Union Zoonoses Report -2021
Salmonellosis was the second most commonly reported foodborne gastrointestinal infection in humans after campylobacteriosis and was a major cause of foodborne outbreaks in EU MSs and non-MS countries. In 2021, the number of confirmed cases of human salmonellosis was 60,050, corresponding to an EU notification rate of 15.7 per 100,000 population. This was an increase of 14.3% compared with the rate in 2020 and a decrease of 19.6% and 23.1% compared with the rates in prepandemic years (2021 vs. 2017–2019) with and without the data from the United Kingdom, respectively. Notwithstanding, the overall trend for salmonellosis in 2017–2021 did not show any statistically significant increase or decrease.
The proportion of hospitalised cases was 38.1%, which was higher than in 2020, with an EU case fatality rate of 0.18%, which is similar to 2020.
The most affected age groups were 0–4 years (27.7%), 5–9 years (13.8%) and over 65 years (16.5%).
The top Salmonella serovars involved in human infections overall were distributed as follows: S. Enteritidis (54.6%), S. Typhimurium (11.4%), monophasic S. Typhimurium (1,4,[5],12:i:-) (8.8%), S. Infantis (2.0%). Sampling to verify compliance with process hygiene criteria on carcases at the slaughterhouse found the highest proportions of positive samples among those collected by the competent authorities for broilers (14%), and turkeys (7.4%).
Breeding flocks of Chickens: Salmonella was found in 348 (2.5%) of the 13,983 flocks tested, compared with 2.0% and 2.3% for 2020 and 2019, respectively. The most frequently reported target serovar was S. Enteritidis (EU flock prevalence of 0.39%, 55 positive flocks), with 44 flocks (80.0%) reported by Poland.
S. Typhimurium (including the monophasic variant) was the second most commonly reported target serovar (EU flock prevalence of 0.11%, 15 positive flocks).
Laying hens: Salmonella was found in 1,323 flocks (3.3%), compared with 1,389 (4.0%) in 2020. The EU prevalence of laying hen flocks that were positive for either of the two target serovars was 1.3%, which was stable compared with 2020, when 1.3% of tested flocks were positive for target serovars.
