Service Information

Improvement in samples lost due to errors

In the year to June 2006, 160019 samples were collected and submitted by participating abattoirs. Of these samples 1934 (1.2%) were untestable; 4941 (3.1%) had an invalid herd identifier and 4290 (2.7%) had a slapmark that did not match those held on file for the herd number submitted. In the year to June 2005, of the 177564 samples collected and submitted by participating abattoirs 1750 (1%) were untestable; 10130 (5.7%) had an invalid herd identifier and 9825 (5.5%) had a slapmark that did not match those held on file for the herd number submitted.

The abattoir non-compliance reporting procedure introduced in June 2003 to address these issues was supplemented by a grading system for the quality and quantity of samples collected in autumn 2005.

The substantial progress made during 2006 in reducing the number of sample results lost because of errors was in no small part due to improved communication between abattoir staff who had taken the samples and the Co-ordinator of the ZAP Salmonella Programme. A lot of additional work was involved in checking the samples and resolving the issues and this is reflected in the improvement.