CDC and public health and regulatory officials in several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Reading infections linked to raw turkey products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) is monitoring the outbreak.
Public health investigators are using the PulseNet system to identify illnesses that may be part of this outbreak. PulseNet is the national subtyping network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by CDC. DNA fingerprinting is performed on Salmonella bacteria isolated from ill people by using techniques called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and whole genome sequencing (WGS). CDC PulseNet manages a national database of these DNA fingerprints to identify possible outbreaks.
According to CDC officials, as of July 11, 2018, 90 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Reading have been reported from 26 states.
Officials say Illnesses started on dates from November 20, 2017, to June 29, 2018. Ill people range in age from less than one year to 91, with a median age of 41. Sixty-one percent are female. Of 78 people with information available, 40 (51%) have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.
Investigation of the Outbreak
In interviews, ill people answered questions about the foods they ate and other exposures in the week before they became sick. Of 61 people interviewed, 37 (61%) people interviewed reported preparing or eating turkey products that were purchased raw, including ground turkey, turkey pieces, and whole turkey.
Officials say ill people reported buying many different brands of raw turkey products from multiple stores. Also, two of the 61 ill people interviewed became sick after pets in their home ate raw ground turkey pet food.
Three of the 61 ill people interviewed worked in a facility that raises or processes turkeys or lived with someone who did.
The outbreak strain of Salmonella Reading has been identified in samples from raw turkey pet food in Minnesota, from raw turkey products from 19 slaughter and six processing establishments, and from live turkeys from several states.
The samples collected by FSIS at these slaughter and processing establishments were part of FSIS’ routine testing under the Salmonella performance standards. Furthermore, WGS showed that the Salmonella strain from these samples is closely related genetically to the Salmonella strain from ill people.
This result provides more evidence that people in this outbreak got sick from preparing raw turkey products.