Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 aims to ensure that appropriate and effective measures are taken to detect and control, amongst others, salmonella at all relevant stages and in particular at the level of primary production, i.e. in flocks, in order to reduce the prevalence of food-borne zoonotic pathogens and thus the risk they pose to public health.

Article 4 (5) of Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 provides for Union targets to be established for the reduction of the prevalence of all Salmonella serotypes with public health significance in broilers. That reduction is key to ensuring that the criteria for salmonella in fresh meat of broilers set out in Part E of Annex II to that Regulation and in Chapter 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 of 15 November 2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs2 can be met.

Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 provides that the Union target is to include a numerical expression of the maximum percentage of epidemiological units remaining positive and/or the minimum percentage of reduction in the number of epidemiological units remaining positive, the maximum time limit within which the target must be achieved and the definition of the testing schemes necessary to verify achievement of the target. It is also to include a definition, where relevant, of serotypes with public health significance.

Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 provides that experience gained under existing national measures and information forwarded to the Commission or to the European Food Safety Authority ('EFSA') under existing Union requirements, in particular in the framework of information provided for in Directive 2003/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the monitoring of zoonoses and zoonotic agents, amending Council Decision 90/424/EEC and repealing Council Directive 92/117/EEC3, and in particular Article 5 thereof, is to be taken into account when setting the Union target.

Article 1 paragraph 1 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 646/2007 of 12 June 2007 implementing Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a Community target for the reduction of the prevalence of Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium in broilers and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1091/20054 sets the target for the reduction of the maximum percentage of flocks of broilers remaining positive for those two Salmonella serotypes to 1 % or less by 31 December 2011.

The European Union Summary Report on Trends and Sources of Zoonoses, Zoonotic Agents and Food-borne Outbreaks in 20095 showed that Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium are the serovars most frequently associated with human illness. Human cases caused by Salmonella enteritidis decreased markedly in 2009, while an increase in Salmonella typhimurium cases was observed.

In July 2011, the EFSA adopted a Scientific Opinion on a quantitative estimation of the public health impact of setting a new target for the reduction of Salmonella in broilers6. It concluded that Salmonella enteritidis is the most successfully transmitted zoonotic Salmonella serotype from parent to offspring in poultry. EFSA also observed that Union control measures in broilers have contributed to a considerable reduction in the number of broiler-associated human salmonellosis cases compared to the situation in 2006. The target should therefore be confirmed.

Monophasic strains of Salmonella typhimurium have developed to be among the most frequently detected Salmonella serotypes in several species of animals and in clinical isolates from humans in recent years. EFSA's 2010 Scientific Opinion on monitoring and assessment of the public health risk of "Salmonella typhimurium-like strains" adopted on 22 September 20107 also stated that monophasic Salmonella typhimurium strains with the antigenic formula X11,4,[5],12:i:-, which includes strains with and without the O5 antigen, have to be considered to be variants of Salmonella typhimurium and to pose a public health risk comparable to that of other Salmonella typhimurium strains. Salmonella typhimurium strains with the antigenic formula 1,4,[5],12:i:- should therefore be included in the target.

To verify whether the Union target has been met, it is necessary to sample flocks of broilers repeatedly. To evaluate and compare the results, it is necessary to describe a common testing scheme to verify whether the Union target has been met.

National control programmes for the achievement of the Union target for 2012 for flocks of broilers of Gallus gallus have been submitted for Union co-financing in accordance with Council Decision 2009/470/EC of 25 May 2009 on expenditure in the veterinary field8. The technical amendments introduced in the Annex to this Regulation are directly applicable. As a result the Commission does not need to re-approve national control programmes implementing this Regulation. A transitional period is therefore not needed.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health and neither the European Parliament nor the Council has opposed them,