Review of pathogenesis and diagnostic methods of immediate relevance for epidemiology and control of Salmonella Dublin in cattle.

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Dublin (S. Dublin) receives increasing attention in cattle production. It is host-adapted to cattle, and leads to unacceptable levels of morbidity, mortality and production losses in both newly and persistently infected herds. Cattle health promoting institutions in several countries are currently constructing active surveillance programmes or voluntary certification programmes, and encourage control and eradication of S. Dublin infected cattle herds. There is a need to understand the underlying pathogenesis of the infection at both animal and herd level to design successful programmes. Furthermore, knowledge about and access to diagnostic tests for use in practice including information about test accuracy and interpretation of available diagnostic test methods are requested. The aim is to synthesise the abundant literature on elements of pathogenesis and diagnosis of immediate relevance for epidemiology and control of S. Dublin at animal and herd level. Relatively few in vivo studies on S. Dublin pathogenesis in cattle included more than a few animals and often showed varying result. It makes it difficult to draw conclusions about mechanisms that affect dissemination in cattle and that might be targets for control methods directed towards improving resistance against the bacteria, e.g. new vaccines. It is recommended to perform larger studies to elucidate dose-response relationships and age- and genetic effects of immunity. Furthermore, it is recommended to attempt to develop faster and more sensitive methods for detection of S. Dublin for diagnosis of infectious animals.