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Samples shall preferably be sent by express mail or courier to the laboratories referred to in Articles 11 and 12 of Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003, within 24 hours after collection. If they are not sent within 24 hours, they shall be stored refrigerated. The samples may be transported at ambient temperature provided that excessive heat (namely over 25 °C) or exposure to sunlight is avoided. At the laboratory the samples shall be kept refrigerated until examination, which must be started within 48 hours following receipt and within 4 days after sampling.
Separate preparations shall be made of the boot swabs and dust or the fabric dust swab in the case of samples by the competent authority, but as regards samples by food business operators the different sample types may be combined in one test.
If ISO standards on the preparation of relevant samples for the detection of Salmonella are agreed on, they shall be applied and replace those set out in points 3.1.1 and 3.1.2.
The detection of Salmonella shall be carried out according to Amendment 1 of EN/ISO 6579-2002/Amd1:2007 ‘Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs – Horizontal method for the detection of Salmonella spp. – Amendment 1: Annex D: Detection of Salmonella spp. in animal faeces and in environmental samples from the primary production stage’ of the International Organization for Standardization.
After incubation the samples in BPW shall not be shaken, swirled or otherwise agitated.
At least one isolate from each positive sample taken by the competent authority shall be serotyped, following the Kaufmann-White-LeMinor scheme. In isolates taken by the food business operators, at least the serotyping for Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium must be carried out.
With regard to samples taken on the initiative of the food business operator, alternative methods may be used instead of the methods for the preparation of samples, detection methods and serotyping set out in points 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 of this Annex, if validated in accordance with the most recent version of EN/ISO 16140.
The isolates shall be tested for antimicrobial resistance in accordance with Article 2 of Commission Decision 2007/407/EC(1).
The competent authority shall ensure that at least one isolated strain of the relevant Salmonella serotypes from sampling as part of official controls per house and per year is stored for possible future phagetyping or antimicrobial susceptibility testing, using the normal methods for culture collection, which must ensure integrity of the strains for a minimum period of 2 years.
If the competent authority so decides, isolates from sampling by food business operators shall also be stored for these purposes.