Most people will surely remember the debate about barn swallows and the risk that they may carry salmonella into cowsheds.
A special EU directive was issued in 2004 which laid down that “no animals shall be present in premises where milk or milk based foods are made and stored”.
Many farmers opposed the directive as it applied to barn swallows which they considered to have a blameless history in agriculture. Their views are now supported in an investigation made by zoonosis researchers at Kalmar University College and Uppsala University. The researchers investigated 503 barn swallows and found that none of these were infected, not even swallows that bred on farms with ongoing salmonella cases.