The Integrated Management System for Salmonella Control Plan in Italy

Salmonella infections are the main cause of food-borne outbreaks in Italy as well as in other industrialized countries: food of poultry origin is the main source of infection. The European Union legislation identifies in the control of the food chain the more effective approach to ensure food safety, indicating in the primary production a pivotal point for surveillance and control of Salmonella infections. In 2003, the European Union set for Member States the objective of reducing the prevalence of Salmonella serovars relevant to public health on the basis of specific control programs in breeding flocks of Gallus gallus and turkeys, laying hens, broilers and fattening turkeys. In this framework, an information system, named SISalm, was implemented in Italy to collect and manage information derived from the application of the national Salmonella control Plan, to standardize data collection and information flows, thus satisfying the needs of all the involved stakeholders, avoiding redundancy and errors. The integration of SISalm with the National Animal identification, registration and traceability System (BDN) and with the Italian Information System for the notification of animal diseases outbreaks (SIMAN) provides a comprehensive data management and reporting tool, which allows monitoring the epidemiological situation at national and local level and the fulfilment of the information debts towards the European Commission and the World Organisation for Animal Health.