Cost-effectiveness of controlling Salmonella in the pork chain

Pork is one of the sources of food-borne salmonellosis in humans. In this paper, the cost-effectiveness of different control scenarios against Salmonella in the stages finishing, transport, lairage and slaughtering is explored. A stochastic simulation model was used for the epidemiological analysis and a deterministic model for the economic evaluation. Results showed that the cost-effectiveness of interventions in the finishing and slaughtering stages is the highest with respect to the reduction of the prevalence of contaminated carcasses. However, the cost-effectiveness is reduced in case not all farms or firms within a stage intervene to reduce the prevalence of Salmonella.