I have sent the Food Safety News staff (stop by the booth – they have great swag) and the Marler Clark Epidemiologist to IAFP this week.  I will be in Minneapolis this week to work on Salmonella Outbreaks from 2018.

Hy-Vee Chicken Salad: As of September 5, 2018, 101 people infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Sandiego (92 people), Salmonella enterica subspecies IIIb (7 people), or both (2 people) were reported from 10 states.

Illnesses started on dates ranging from June 21, 2018, to August 7, 2018. Ill people ranged in age from 1 year to 89, with a median age of 50. Sixty-one percent were female. Of 95 people with information available, 25 (26%) were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.

Epidemiologic evidence indicated that Spring Pasta Salad purchased at Hy-Vee grocery stores was a likely source of this outbreak.

In interviews, ill people answered questions about the foods they ate and other exposures in the week before they became ill. Sixty (76%) of 79 people interviewed reported eating Spring Pasta Salad from Hy-Vee grocery stores in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The ill people in North Dakota, Oregon, and Tennessee traveled to states where Hy-Vee grocery stores are located.

On July 16, 2018, Hy-Vee, Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa removed Spring Pasta Salad products from all of its stores. Hy-Vee stores are located in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. On July 17, 2018, Hy-Vee, Inc. recalled its Spring Pasta Salad because it might have been contaminated with Salmonella.

Kellogg’s Honey Smacks Cereal: As of September 25, 2018, 135 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Mbandaka were reported from 36 states.

Illnesses started on dates from March 3, 2018, to August 29, 2018. Ill people ranged in age from less than one year to 95, with a median age of 57. Sixty-nine percent of ill people were female. Out of 101 people with information available, 34 (34%) were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.

Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicated that Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal was the likely source of this multistate outbreak.

In interviews, ill people answered questions about the foods they ate and other exposures in the week before they became ill. Sixty-three (75%) of 84 people interviewed reported eating Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal. Ill people in this outbreak reported this cereal more often than any other cereals or food items.

Health officials in several states collected Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal from retail locations and ill people’s homes for testing. Laboratory testing identified the outbreak strain of Salmonella Mbandaka in a sample of unopened Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal collected from a retail location in California. Laboratory testing also identified the outbreak strain in samples of leftover Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal collected from the homes of ill people in Montana, New York, and Utah. WGS showed that Salmonella bacteria isolated from sick people and the cereal were closely related genetically. This result provides more evidence that people in this outbreak got sick from eating Kellogg’s Honey Smacks.

On June 14, 2018, the Kellogg Company recalled all Honey Smacks cereal that were on the market within the cereal’s one-year shelf-life.

JBS Ground Beef: As of March 21, 2019, 403 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Newport were reported from 30 states.

Illnesses started on dates ranging from August 5, 2018 to February 8, 2019. Ill people ranged in age from less than one year to 99, with a median age of 42. Forty-nine percent were male. Of 340 people with information available, 117 (34%) were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.

State and local health departments asked ill people questions about the foods they ate and other exposures in the week before they became ill. Of 277 people interviewed, 237 (86%) reported eating ground beef at home. This percentage is significantly higher than results from a survey of healthy people in which 40% of respondents reported eating any ground beef at home in the week before they were interviewed. Also, several unrelated ill people ate ground beef at the same events or purchased ground beef at the same grocery store chains, suggesting that the contaminated food item was served or sold at those locations.

Officials in Arizona and Nevada collected opened and unopened packages of ground beef from ill people’s homes. Officials also collected unopened packages of ground beef from retail locations. The outbreak strain of Salmonella Newport was identified in the ground beef. Whole genome sequencing showed that the Salmonella identified in the ground beef was closely related genetically to the Salmonella in samples from ill people. USDA-FSIS and state partners traced the source of the ground beef eaten by ill people in this outbreak to JBS Tolleson, Inc.

On October 4, 2018, JBS Tolleson, Inc. recalled approximately 6.5 million pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with Salmonella Newport. On December 4, 2018, JBS Tolleson, Inc. recalled an additional 5.2 million pounds of beef products.