[A food-borne infection caused by Campylobacter jejuni serotype Lauwers 19]

Report on a outbreak due to contaminated food involving 556 schoolchildren who got their lunch from a school kitchen. The outbreak occurred abruptly without any secondary infectious. Examinations for Salmonellae, Shigellae, Enteritis-coli, Yersiniae and Rotaviruses were negative. However, Campylobacter jejuni were isolated from 105 specimens of faeces in Rostock. Sixty of these strains and another 2 that had been isolated at the same time but had no relation to the outbreak in Rostock, were further differentiated in Berlin-Buch. All of them proved to be Campylobacter jejuni biotype 2. Serotyping according to Lauwers revealed that 58 out of the 60 strains isolated belong to serotype 19. One of the two remaining strains could not be typed, the other was identified as serotype 1. One of the two cultivated strains that were not related to the outbreak in Rostock, was untypable, the other being of serotype 2. Therefore it can be assumed that the outbreak came from the same source of infection. Epidemiological investigations pointed to some food which had been served 6 days prior to the outbreak. The meal had consisted of white cabbage stew with beef. The kitchen supplies the cooked food to several institutions; 3 different dishes being prepared each day, referred to as dish, A, B and C. The institutions receiving dish A - which on November 1, 1985 was the above-mentioned white cabbage stew - actually included several classes of a school as well as a kindergarten. On that particular day however the kindergarten had not been supplied with dish A but, as an exception, with dish B.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)