Focusing on Latent Carriers for Controlling Salmonella Dublin in Dairy Herds

By Dr. Angel Abuelo and Rafael Castro-Vargas et.al

Salmonella Dublin, a host-adapted Salmonella serotype in cattle, has become substantially more prevalent in dairy and calf-rearing facilities in the United States since 2012. S. Dublin bacteria isolated from American farms commonly exhibit multidrug-resistant (MDR) characteristics. This multidrug resistance substantially complicates the treatment and control of salmonellosis due to S. Dublin infection because no antimicrobial effective against S. Dublin can be legally administered to cattle in the U.S.

S. Dublin is a zoonotic infection, meaning that infection in cattle also presents a potential risk to human health. In this article, we summarize our recent study exploring the use of a commercially available S. Dublin vaccine (EnterVene-d; Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health) to reduce disease transmission in dairy farms.

Importance of Salmonella Dublin

In 2014, the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Monitoring System conducted a cross-sectional study of 234 farms nationwide. S. Dublin was present in 0.7%, 6.7% and 1.8% of the operations, milk samples and milk filters, respectively. Additionally, S. Dublin has been the most common Salmonella serovar isolated from bovine samples at the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory between 2018 and 2022, representing 10–20% of all bovine Salmonella isolations.