# Commission Regulation (EU) No 200/2010 of 10 March 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a Union target for the reduction of the prevalence of Salmonella serotypes in adult breeding flocks of Gallus gallus (Text with EEA relevance), Division 2.2.2.1: Routine sampling at the initiative of the food business operator

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Sampling shall primarily consist of faecal samples and shall aim to detect a 1 % within flock prevalence, with a 95 % confidence limit. To that effect, the samples shall comprise one of the following:
(a)Pooled faeces made up of separate samples of fresh faeces each weighing not less than 1 g taken at random from a number of sites in the poultry house in which the breeding flock is kept, or where the breeding flock has free access to more than one poultry house on a particular holding, from each group of houses on the holding in which the breeding flock is kept. Faeces may be pooled for analysis up to a minimum of two pools.
The number of sites from which separate faeces samples are to be taken in order to make a pooled sample shall be as follows:
Number of birds kept in the breeding flock
Number of faeces samples to be taken in the breeding flock
250-349
200
350-449
220
450-799
250
800-999
260
1 000 or more
300
(b)Boot swabs and/or dust samples:
Boot swabs used shall be sufficiently absorptive to soak up moisture. Tubegauze ‘socks’ shall also be acceptable for that purpose.
The surface of the boot swab shall be moistened using appropriate diluents (such as 0,8 % sodium chloride, 0,1 % peptone in sterile deionised water, sterile water or any other diluent approved by the competent authority).
The samples shall be taken while walking through the house using a route that produces representative samples for all parts of the poultry house or the respective sector. It shall include littered and slatted areas provided that slats are safe to walk on. All separate pens within a poultry house shall be included in the sampling. On completion of the sampling in the chosen sector, boot swabs must be removed carefully so as not to dislodge adherent material.
The samples shall consist of:
(i)five pairs of boot swabs, representing each about 20 % of the area of the poultry house; the swabs may be pooled for analysis into a minimum of two pools; or
(ii)at least one pair of boot swabs representing the whole area of the poultry house and an additional dust sample collected from multiple places throughout the poultry house from surfaces with visible presence of dust; one or several moistened fabric swab(s) of at least 900 cm2 surface area in total must be used to collect the dust sample.
(c)In cage breeding flocks, sampling may consist of naturally mixed faeces from dropping belts, scrapers or deep pits, depending on the type of house. Two samples of at least 150 g shall be collected to be tested individually:
(i)droppings belts beneath each tier of cages which are run regularly and discharged into an auger or conveyor system;
(ii)droppings pit system in which deflectors beneath the cages scrape into a deep pit beneath the house;
(iii)droppings pit system in a step-cage poultry house when cages are offset and faeces fall directly into the pit.
There are normally several stacks of cages within a house. Pooled faeces from each stack shall be represented in the overall pooled sample. Two pooled samples shall be taken from each breeding flock as described in the following third to sixth subparagraphs.
In systems where there are belts or scrapers, these shall be run on the day of the sampling before sampling is carried out.
In systems where there are deflectors beneath cages and scrapers, pooled faeces that have lodged on the scraper after it has been run, shall be collected.
In step-cage poultry house systems where there is no belt or scraper system it is necessary to collect pooled faeces from throughout the deep pit.
Droppings belt systems: pooled faecal material from the discharge ends of the belts shall be collected.
(d)In cage houses where a sufficient amount of faeces does not accumulate on scrapers or belt cleaners at the discharge end of belts, four or more moistened fabric swabs of at least 900 cm 2 per swab, moistened using appropriate diluents (such as 0,8 % sodium chloride, 0,1 % peptone in sterile deionised water, sterile water or any other diluent approved by the competent authority, shall be used to swab as large a surface area as possible at the discharge end of all accessible belts after they have been run, ensuring each swab is coated on both sides with faecal material from the belts and scrapers or belt cleaners.
(e)In multi-tier barn or free range houses in which most of the faecal material is removed from the house by dropping belts, one pair of boot swabs shall be taken by walking around in littered areas in accordance with point (b) and at least 2 moistened fabric swabs shall be taken as hand-held swabs from all accessible dropping belts, as in point (d).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2010/200/annex/division/2/division/2.2/division/2.2.2/division/2.2.2.1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2010-200/annex/division-2/division-2.2/division-2.2.2/division-2.2.2.1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.