Salmonella isolations in abattoirs in Greece

The prevalence of salmonellas in drain swabs from three abattoirs of Athens was studied with the use of conventional methods of Salmonella isolation as well as with a new procedure which involves secondary enrichment from the usual selenite broth or Muller-Kauffmann's tetrathionate broth in Rappaport's medium slightly modified.In all groups studied the secondary enrichment in Rappaport's medium led to an increase in the number of positive swabs, in the number of Salmonella serotypes, and in the total number of strains isolated.The frequency of Salmonella isolations was higher in samples from abattoirs killing only pigs and lower in samples from abattoirs killing only cattle or only sheep.The predominant serotype in abattoirs dealing with cattle was Salmonella tennessee, and S. typhimurium in abattoirs dealing with sheep. No predominant serotype was found in samples from abattoirs dealing mostly with pigs.S. abony, S. drypool, S. emek, S. indiana, S. muenchen and S. tennessee were isolated for the first time in Greece.