Prevalence of Salmonella in flocks housed in enriched cages

Salmonellosis is a foodborne disease of humans and animals caused by infection with Salmonella. The aim of this paper is to improve a deterministic model (DM) and an individual-based model (IBM) with reference to Salmonella propagation in flocks of laying hens taking into account variations in hens housed in the same cage and to compare both models. The spatio-temporal evolution, the basic reproduction number, R 0, and the speed of wave propagation were computed for both models. While in most cases the DM allows summary of all the features of the model in the formula for computation of R 0, slight differences between individuals or groups may be observed with the IBM that could not be expected from the DM, especially when initial environmental contamination is very low and some cages may get rid of bacteria. Both models suggest that the cage size plays a role on the risk and speed of propagation of the bacteria, which should be considered when designing new breeding systems.