Salmonella was isolated from 37% of the carcass samples as a mean value. High variations were noticed between
different slaughterhouses (between 0 and 70%) and sampling days in the same abattoir (between 3 and 52%). A
correlation was found between the carcass contamination and the status of the delivered animals (P ¼ 0Æ01675).
Cross contamination was estimated to account for 29% of the positive carcasses. The slaughterhouse environment
was highly contaminated; before starting the slaughtering activities 25% of the samples were positive on average.
The most prevalent serotypes isolated at the slaughterhouse environment and from the colon content were S.
Typhimurium, S. Livingstone and S. Derby. On carcasses S. Typhimurium was predominately isolated (71%).
The biggest variability of serotypes was found in the mesenteric lymph nodes