Eggs behind five English Salmonella outbreaks in 2019 - Food Safety News

Five of 15 foodborne Salmonella outbreaks were linked to eggs in England in 2019, according to data published by the UK Health Security Agency.

The five Salmonella Enteritidis outbreaks sickened 93 people with 13 hospitalized and one death.

Two other Salmonella Enteritidis outbreaks affected 35 and five people respectively with the source unknown for the largest and identified as mixed food for the smaller incident.

The largest outbreak involved 138 people and was caused by Salmonella Mikawasima. Eleven people were hospitalized but the source was not found.

One person died and eight were hospitalized in a Salmonella Enterica I4, 5,12:b:- outbreak affecting 69 people but the cause was not identified.

Salmonella Typhimurium was behind two outbreaks. One had 62 patients and was linked to lamb while the other sickened 13 people due to rice served in a restaurant, café, pub, hotel or catering service setting.

The vehicle in two Salmonella Agona outbreaks affecting 23 people was unknown. A Salmonella Indiana outbreak with 28 cases was traced to chicken while Salmonella Bredeney in pork meat was behind nine illnesses.

In 2018, eggs were linked to two Salmonella Enteritidis outbreaks. One affected 259 people and the other involved 26 patients.

Salmonella decline
Data for 2019 came from Public Health England's Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS) and the Electronic Foodborne and Non-Foodborne Gastrointestinal Outbreak Surveillance System (eFOSS).

The number of reported Salmonella cases in England decreased from 2018 by 440 to 8,398 in 2019.

From 2018 to 2019 there was a drop in reports of Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium. These two were the top recorded Salmonella types followed by Newport, Agona, Infantis, Mikawasima, Java, Stanley, Kentucky and Virchow.

The age group with the largest number of laboratory reports was children below 10 years old. Second was the 20 to 29 year old age group. People aged over 80 were the least affected.

London had the most Salmonella lab reports with 1,667, followed by the South East and North West with more than 1,000. The North East had the lowest with 369. October was the peak month for Salmonella reporting.

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