A common bacterial cause of food-poisoning worldwide. The prevalence of individual serotypes constantly changes. World-wide distribution in humans and animals.
Salmonellas are common commensals of all animals and birds and are excreted in feces.
The main reservoirs for human infection are poultry, cattle, sheep and pigs. Infection in animals is maintained by recycling slaughterhouse waste as animal feed, fecal oral spread and fecal contamination of hatching eggs. Transmission occurs when organisms, introduced into the kitchen in poultry carcasses, meat or unpasteurized milk, multiply in food owing to inadequate cooking, cross-contamination of cooked foods and inadequate storage. The organism inhabits the intestinal tract of many animals including birds, cattle, sheep, pigs, lab. Salmonella occurs worldwide.