Slaughter pigs carrying Salmonella are a considerable risk for contamination of the ultimate meat and meat products. As part of a programme to develop a quantitative risk assessment model for Salmonella on pork in the Republic of Ireland, this study aimed to estimate the occurrence of Salmonella on pig carcasses and pork joints. As a strong association between the proportion of animals carrying Salmonella and the proportion of contaminated carcasses at the end of the slaughter line has been observed by numerous researchers; this investigation brought together the results of several relevant studies in order to model a relationship between Salmonella prevalence in pigs' caeca and Salmonella prevalence on carcasses post-evisceration. The model estimated the Salmonella prevalence in pork joints from Irish boning halls to be on average 3.9% (95% CI 1.68.2%), and was validated by the results of a large survey (n=720) of Salmonella in pork joints (mean 3.3%; 95% CI 2.0-4.6%) carried out in four commercial pork abattoirs as part of this research project. Sensitivity analysis reinforced the importance of final rinsing and chilling as critical points that are very efficient at reducing considerably the occurrence of Salmonella on the final product.