Sustainably fighting Salmonella

What is Salmonella?

Salmonella is a bacterium. There are thousands of different species and they can also hide themselves well. That's because they adapt to their environment, which can be a human or animal too. The danger of the salmonella bacterium? It's a pathogen. The disease you get from this elusive bacteria is called salmonellosis. Why is it so elusive? In most cases, the disease is subclinical. That means there are no obvious signs of disease and it can be present, spread and transmitted for a long time before it becomes clear that salmonella is the culprit.

Preventing Salmonella

Fighting micro-organisms such as salmonella is done with disinfectants. This is recommended for housing in livestock farming. This increases the resistance of the animals, making them less susceptible to infection. Unfortunately, traditional disinfectants also contain chemicals. The adverse effects of this are corrosion, sensitivity to water hardness. In addition, the chemicals are often toxic and irritating to animals that come into contact with them.

Livestock drinking water is the most common source of salmonella contamination. Especially when we are talking about surface or ditch water. But groundwater and tap water are also not safe. Once in the barn, the water can become contaminated with the bacteria. And contaminated drinking water is the fastest way for all animals to become infected. Toxic pesticides with chemicals are obviously not an option for this. Disinfection in a biodegradable way is now possible with Watter. It is the outcome to effectively combat salmonella.

Combating Salmonella in livestock farming

One of those places where you want to prevent and combat the salmonella bacteria is the Livestock Farm. Your cows, chickens, goats or pigs may be carrying it long before the salmonella symptoms become apparent. Despite the lack of symptoms, the animals do suffer from it. The feed is absorbed less well and logically the production will decrease. The disease only develops when the animal is weakened or stressed. Salmonella damage is also extremely costly for a dairy farm or medium-sized intensive farm. Nutreco investigated this and the figures do not lie: salmonella causes €5,000 to €10,000 in damage per year in this category.

Salmonella in the food industry

Salmonella is also a problem in factories where food is processed, and not just in wet places. Salmonella also occurs in dry products such as powders. The tricky part is that salmonella survives just fine without moisture and food. It goes into a kind of sleep mode. As soon as water and food are added, the bacteria wakes up and can multiply again. Controlling dry products is difficult. So the focus is on prevention. When preventing salmonella in the food industry, it is important to look at the entire chain and to disinfect everything that can lead to contamination in the environment of the product. Not only in your own company, but also with suppliers and in their environment. Can pests have access to the product? Is there contact with manure, infected people or a chance of pigeon droppings on the wheel of a forklift?

Fighting Salmonella with Watter

Watter-system is the name of the system in which we use electrolysis to convert water and salt into an effective disinfectant. It disinfects in a sustainable, biodegradable way with the active substance HOCl. The concentration of these substances can be kept very low due to the amount of active substances. The benefit of that? The disinfectant is friendly for humans and animals and can therefore also be used as drinking water in your livestock farming.

Proven effective in combating salmonella

Watter prevents and removes salmonella and many other pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, molds and yeasts. Also consider the formation of biofilm in drinking water pipes. We had Watter tested by TNO and it is now officially registered on the European Article 95 list for disinfectants (PT1-5). This means that it complies with European Biocide Legislation. Are you ready to tackle your salmonella problem or threat? Contact us.

Interesting article about salmonella