doi:10.3390/ani12131620engBernad-Roche, M.Casanova-Higes, A.Marín-Alcalá, C.M.Mainar-Jaime, R.Salmonella Shedding in Slaughter Pigs and the Use of Esterified Formic Acid in the Drinking Water as a Potential Abattoir-Based Mitigation MeasureART-2022-129557Pigs shedding Salmonella at slaughter are considered a source of carcass contamination and human infection. To assess this potential risk, the proportion of Salmonella shedders that arrive for slaughter was evaluated in a population of 1068 pigs from 24 farms. Shedding was present in 27.3% of the pigs, and the monophasic variant of Salmonella Typhimurium, an emerging zoonotic serotype, was the most prevalent (46.9%). Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Salmonella isolates was common, but few isolates showed AMR to antimicrobials of critical importance for humans such as third-generation cephalosporins (5%), colistin (0%), or carbapenems (0%). However, AMR to tigecycline was moderately high (15%). The efficacy of an esterified formic acid in the lairage drinking water (3 kg formic acid/1000 L) was also assessed as a potential abattoir-based strategy to reduce Salmonella shedding. It was able to reduce the proportion of shedders (60.7% in the control group (CG) vs. 44.3% in the treatment group (TG); p < 0.01). After considering clustering and confounding factors, the odds of shedding Salmonella in the CG were 2.75 (95% CI = 1.80–4.21) times higher than those of the TG, suggesting a potential efficacy of reduction in shedding as high as 63.6%. This strategy may contribute to mitigating the burden of abattoir environmental contamination.2022http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/11828010.3390/ani12131620http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/118280oai:zaguan.unizar.es:118280info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/RTI2018-093915-B-I00Animals 12, 13 (2022), 1620 [16 pp.]byhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess