Abstract

Each European Union Member State has a specialised laboratory that examines whether the pathogenic Salmonella bacterium is present in food or animals. These are the European National Reference Laboratories for Salmonella (NRLs-Salmonella). These laboratories are obliged to participate in various annual quality monitoring exercises, known as proficiency tests. One of these proficiency tests has the aim of checking whether NRLs are able to detect the Salmonella bacterium in samples from the living environment of animals. This year, it was decided to conduct this test in samples of chicken faeces.

In 2025, 34 out of the 35 NRLs-Salmonella obtained a good score in this proficiency test. One NRL-Salmonella scored a moderate performance, due to an administrative error. The 35 participants in this proficiency test were from 27 European Union Member States, 7 other European countries and 1 non-European country.

The laboratories used an obligatory, internationally accepted method to detect the presence of Salmonella in chicken faeces samples. Each laboratory received a package containing samples that either had been artificially contaminated with two different concentrations of Salmonella Typhimurium or did not contain this bacterium.
This proficiency test was organised by the European Union Reference Laboratory for Salmonella (EURL-Salmonella). EURL-Salmonella monitors the performance of the NRLs-Salmonella in the European Union and is part of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).