A European court has ruled as part of a Dutch case involving Salmonella detection in poultry and when repeat testing can be undertaken.
The request for a preliminary ruling covered the interpretation of EU law around Salmonella, exceptional cases, and routine sampling. It was made in proceedings between L. Vof and the Minister for Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality in the Netherlands.
L. Hof operates a poultry breeding farm in the Netherlands with a flock of 27,000 hens. On Feb. 10, 2020, Hof took samples from the five houses where that flock was located as part of routine sampling. On Feb. 17, an accredited laboratory detected Salmonella in samples of the left boot swabs of three of those houses.
Following the positive results, Dutch authorities declared the three houses infected with Salmonella and imposed control measures. Removing poultry, eggs, and poultry droppings from the infected houses and taking poultry and eggs into them was prohibited. The poultry and eggs in the houses had to be removed or destroyed in a manner set by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). Those measures were implemented on Feb. 28, 2020.
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