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An outbreak of Salmonella München in Germany associated with raw pork meat

U Buchholz1, B Brodhun, S O Brockmann

  • 1Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch-Institute, Seestrasse 10, 13353 Berlin, Germany. buchholzu@who.int

Journal of Food Protection
|February 25, 2005
PubMed

Insights

A 2001 Salmonella München outbreak in Germany was linked to pork meat contamination early in the production chain. Different PFGE profiles in one state suggest distinct contamination events complicated this multistate foodborne illness outbreak.

Area of Science:

  • Foodborne illness epidemiology
  • Microbial source tracking
  • Public health surveillance

Background:

  • An outbreak of Salmonella München occurred in Germany during the summer of 2001, affecting multiple states.
  • Initial investigations faced challenges in identifying a specific food source.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the epidemiology of the Salmonella München outbreak.
  • To identify the source and transmission routes of the outbreak.
  • To analyze the complexities of multistate foodborne outbreaks.

Main Methods:

  • Descriptive epidemiology and hypothesis-generating interviews.
  • Retrospective cohort studies and a case-control study of suboutbreaks.
  • Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) for isolate typing and trace-back investigations.

Main Results:

  • Four German states were consecutively affected: Saxonia, Brandenburg, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg.
  • Pork meat was identified as a probable source in three states (Saxonia, Brandenburg, Berlin), but not in Baden-Württemberg.
  • PFGE profiles indicated distinct contamination events, with isolates from Baden-Württemberg differing from those in the other three states.

Conclusions:

  • Contamination early in the pork production chain likely caused the outbreak.
  • Multistate outbreaks can be complicated by contamination events yielding different end products.
  • Investigating suboutbreaks and employing trace-back methods are valuable for solving complex multistate outbreaks.

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