Salmonella Dublin is a zoonotic bacterial pathogen that has significant negative impacts to the dairy industry due to calf losses, abortion, and reduced milk yield.
Based on submissions to the provincial diagnostic lab in BC, there appears to be a significant increase in S. Dublin positive dairy cattle in the province.
We don’t understand how or why S. Dublin is circulating in BC, how many farms or infected, and what the best tools are to stop the transmission.
The BC S. Dublin Surveillance Program is a provincial, industry-driven surveillance and control strategy to reduce the spread of S. Dublin in BC, and to improve animal health, productivity, and profitability of the BC dairy industry.
What You Should Know
S. Dublin affects dairy cattle health and welfare
It can cause high morbidity and mortality in animals of all ages. Affected young calves suffer from pneumonia, diarrhea, swollen joints, fever, or sudden death. It could cause late term abortion in adult cows.
S. Dublin can be challenging to detect.
S. Dublin is multi-drug resistant in cattle.
Animals can become carriers and shed the bacteria without showing signs of illness. There is no “one size fits all” test and many different diagnostics are used to detect S. Dublin in the herd.
Isolates of the bacteria show resistance to 3 or more common classes of antimicrobials.
S. Dublin is a zoonotic disease.
Humans can get infected with S. Dublin from direct contact of an infected animal or from consumption of infected milk products. This could lead to rare but fatal bloodstream infections.
