In the middle of a 35,709,675 pound (and likely too grow) recall of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg tainted turkey meat, and the continued concern for Salmonella Newport, Salmonella Hadar, and Salmonella Typhimurium in our food supply, comes Salmonella Kentucky.

In a recent article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, abstracted online, the national Salmonella surveillance systems from France, England and Wales, Denmark, and the United States identified the recent emergence of multidrug-resistant isolates of Salmonella enterica serotype Kentucky displaying high-level resistance to ciprofloxacin.

A total of 489 human cases were identified during the period from 2002 (3 cases) to 2008 (174 cases). These isolates belonged to a single clone defined by the multilocus sequence type ST198, the XbaI-pulsed-field gel electrophoresis cluster X1, and the presence of the Salmonella genomic island 1 variant SGI1-K. This clone was probably selected in 3 steps in Egypt during the 1990s and the early 2000s and has now spread to several countries in Africa and, more recently, in the Middle East.

Poultry has been identified as a potential major vehicle for infection by this clone. Continued surveillance and appropriate control measures should be implemented by national and international authorities to limit the spread of this strain.