2024-03-23 19:51:00
A cross-border outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka ST413 has been ongoing in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and the United Kingdom (UK) since September 2021. As of 30 November 2022, 196 cases have been recorded and published in a rapid assessment of outbreaks carried out jointly by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). As of March 15, 2024, 300 cases (an increase of 104 cases) have been reported in Estonia (n=3), Finland (n=98), France (n=16), Germany (n=2), in Ireland (n = 7), the Netherlands (n = 1) and the United Kingdom (n = 173), according to the European case definition. Twenty-three were hospitalized, 6 had sepsis and 1 died in the UK.
In November 2022, when the first assessment was published, ready-to-eat chicken products and/or fresh chicken meat were identified as likely vectors of infection based on interviews with cases in Finland and the United Kingdom. Subsequent investigations by food safety authorities in Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands, as well as the sharing of food genomic information with EFSA in 2024, identified chicken breasts cooked at steamed and frozen, produced in Ukraine, as a vector of infection. The contaminated batches had been imported by non-European operators.
The shelf life of contaminated frozen chicken meat products expired in November and December 2023. The most recent cases were detected in Finland in October 2023 and in the United Kingdom in February 2024. Assuming that the identified contaminated batches do not are no longer on the market, and given the expiration dates and implemented control measures, the likelihood of new infections occurring with the outbreak strain from these lots is low. However, despite the implementation of control measures, cases continued to occur throughout 2023 in the EU/EEA and early 2024 in the UK, suggesting undetected exposure pathways that require further investigation and pose a continued, albeit reduced, risk of new infections.
Source: European Center for Disease Prevention and Control
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