ABSTRACT
Because certain lymph nodes may be incorporated in food products, the presence of Salmonella enterica in these tissues could pose a food safety risk. We designed this two-part study to assess the prevalence of Salmonella in prescapular lymph nodes from normal slaughtered swine. Prescapular lymph nodes were collected from 300 systematically selected pigs in study 1 and, in study 2, from 75 pigs distributed among 10 herds. For study 2, pooled bacterial cultures were also completed on ileocecal lymph nodes, combining tissue from five pigs per pool (n = 60 pools). No Salmonella was detected in study 1 among prescapular lymph nodes (95% confidence interval, 0.0 to 1.16%). Salmonella was not detected in 75 prescapular lymph nodes from study 2, although Salmonella was detected in 5 of 10 herds in ileocecal lymph nodes. We conclude that prescapular lymph nodes posed a limited food safety risk in this population of pigs.
