[Salmonella infection sources in poultry flocks in northern Greece]

From 10 egg production poultry farms 1516 samples were collected and examined for the presence of salmonella. The samples were: 201 chicken, 36 sparrows, 35 rats, 35 pools of 20 flies each, 450 eggs, 60 mattresses, 188 feces, 425 feedstuffs and 86 water samples. Salmonellae were isolated only from 163 (10.8%) samples. From the 146 (89.6%) of these S. gallinarum was isolated. From the rest 17 (10.4%) the following mobile salmonella strains were isolated: two strains of S. virchow and Salmonella of subgroup II, four strains of S. typhimurium var. Copenhagen, seven strains of S. Livingstone, one S. enteritidis and one S. infantis The S. gallinarum was isolated from dead or sick chicken (46%), eggs (10.4%), rats Rattus norvegicus (14.3%) and mattresses 1.6%. The mobile salmonellae were isolated from feedstuffs (2%), flies (14.3%), rats (2.8%), feces (1%). From the present study, it seems that rats, chicken and eggs are important for the salmonella dissemination.