| Summary: | Many bacterial pathogens such as Clostridium, Staphylococcus, Campylobacter and many other bacterial strains are capable of causing food-poisoning, and Salmonella enterica can be considered as one of the most important causes with poultry thought to be the main source. Although S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis and the vast majority of other Salmonella serovars generally produce little systemic disease in adult chickens, they are able to colonize the alimentary tract of poultry, resulting in contamination of poultry carcasses and entry into the human food chain. However, there is a great demand to control food-poisoning salmonellosis at both breeder and layer levels at the national and global level in order to produce Salmonelle-free poultry products, due to the current correlation between S. Enteritidis PT4 and pOUltry products. Salmonellosis costs the European Union a minimum of 500- 900 million Euros annually. Salmonellosis in food animals is a major target for reduction of human infection by the European Union. Legislation has been introduced to monitor the most important Salmonellae serovars. The major Salmonellae serovars of public health consequence are S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis (causing 15% and 60% respectively of all cases in Europe in 2002). The infonnation about the physico-chemical environment of the chicken gut relevant to colonization by salmonella is very limited and the mechanism of colonization of chicken gut by Salmonellae is not clear.
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