Salmonella in animals in New Zealand: the past to the future

In New Zealand, salmonellosis was first reported in pigs in 1934 when Bacillus suipestifer (Salmonella enterica serovar Cholerae-suis) infection was recognised as a common cause of mortality in young pigs raised in unsanitary conditions in the Waikato district (Marshall 1934). A few years later, mild forms of Pullorum disease were reported in young chickens (Bobby 1946) and a blood-testing programme involving 700 birds revealed a prevalence of 23.3% (Bobby 1941). A 5-year survey by the Animal Research Station at Wallaceville (1941-45) found that Pullorum was the most common disease of poultry, but by 1945, when 110,000 birds were tested, the prevalence had reduced to 9.08%. Over the next 10 years a test and slaughter programme succeeded in reducing the prevalence to 0.39% (Salisbury 1958), but isolated pockets of infection still persisted; it was a further 10 years before the disease was eradicated from commercial flocks (Russell and Kicks 1964). © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.