Large outbreaks of Salmonella Typhimurium infection in Denmark in 2008

S Ethelberg; A Wingstrand; T Jensen; G Sørensen; L Muller; M Lisby; E M Nielsen; K Mølbak

doi:10.2807/ese.13.44.19023-en

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Large outbreaks of Salmonella Typhimurium infection in Denmark in 2008
S Ethelberg^1,2 , A Wingstrand³ , T Jensen⁴ , G Sørensen³ , L Muller¹ , M Lisby⁵ , E M Nielsen² , K Mølbak¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Department of Epidemiology, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark ² Department of Bacteriology, Mycology and Parasitology, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark ³ National Food Institute, Technical University, Copenhagen, Denmark ⁴ Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Copenhagen, Denmark ⁵ Regional Veterinary and Food Control Authority East, Copenhagen, Denmark

Correspondence:
S Ethelberg
SET ssi.dk
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Citation style for this article: Ethelberg S, Wingstrand A, Jensen T, Sørensen G, Muller L, Lisby M, Nielsen E M, Mølbak K. Large outbreaks of Salmonella Typhimurium infection in Denmark in 2008. Euro Surveill. 2008;13(44):pii=19023. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.13.44.19023-en Received: 24 Oct 2008

Abstract

An outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium phage type U292 has been ongoing in Denmark since 1 April, with 1,054 cases registered until 23 October 2008. Extensive investigations including hypothesis-generating interviews, matched case-control studies, cohort studies in embedded outbreaks, shopping list analyses, analyses of food samples from patient's homes, trace-back analyses and extensive microbiological analysis of products have not provided clear indications of a specific source of infection but the main hypothesis is that the vehicle of the outbreak are different pork products. In addition to the large U292 outbreak, at least four other S. Typhimurium outbreaks (caused by phage types U288, DT120, DT3 and DT135) have been investigated in Denmark in 2008.