# Commission Regulation (EU) No 517/2011 of 25 May 2011 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 certain Salmonella serotypes in laying hens of Gallus gallus and amending Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 and Commission Regulation (EU) No 200/2010 (Text with EEA relevance), Division 2.2.1: Sampling by the food business operator

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

(a)In cage flocks, 2 × 150 grams of naturally pooled faeces that have accumulated on scrapers or belt cleaners shall be taken from all belts or scrapers in the house after running the manure removal system; however, in the case of cage houses without scrapers or belts 2 × 150 grams of mixed fresh faeces must be collected from 60 different places beneath the cages in the dropping pits.
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 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.
(b)In barn or free-range houses, two pairs of boot swabs or socks shall be taken.
Boot swabs used must be sufficiently absorptive to soak up moisture. The surface of the boot swab must be moistened using appropriate diluents.
The samples must be taken while walking through the house using a route that produces representative samples for all parts of the house or the respective sector. This shall include littered and slatted areas provided that slats are safe to walk on, but not areas outside the house in the case of flocks with outdoor access. All separate pens within a house must 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.
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 and at least a second pair of moistened fabric swabs shall be taken from all accessible dropping belts, as in the second paragraph of point (a).
The two samples can be pooled together to form one sample for testing.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2011/517/annex/division/2/division/2.2/division/2.2.1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2011-517/annex/division-2/division-2.2/division-2.2.1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.