Salmonella Dublin

what you can do to help your herds

Abstract

Salmonella Dublin (SD) is a serotype of Salmonella that is host-adapted to cattle and can lead to persistent carrier infections. It can cause serious disease outbreaks with high morbidity and mortality in youngstock, and abortions or morbidity and mortality in older cattle. There are also food safety concerns related to SD, a zoonotic pathogen that can cause serious human illness or death. A high morbidity and mortality outbreak has been associated with people consuming unpasteurized milk, and it is identified as one of the top three Salmonella serotypes found in beef products, notably ground beef. It also has the potential to infect and cause serious illness in cattle care workers exposed to infectious secretions of SD infected cattle. Veterinarians need to be fully educated on the clinical disease presentations of SD as well as the current diagnostic tests to identify and manage this disease. Strategies to keep SD out of individual herds need to be discussed and implemented. For those herds where it is already present, a plan to control the transmission of SD needs to be in place as well as a monitoring strategy to ensure its success.