Use of this drug in chickens may limit effectiveness of cephalosporins in treating human infections.

Background: Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis has emerged as a significant foodborne pathogen throughout the world and is commonly characterized by phage typing. In Canada phage types (PT) 4, 8 and 13 predominate and in 2005 a large foodborne PT13 outbreak occurred in the province of Ontario. The ability to link strains during this outbreak was difficult due to the apparent clonality of PT13 isolates in Canada, as there was a single dominant pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profile amongst epidemiologically linked human and food isolates as well as concurrent sporadic strains. The aim of this study was to perform comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), DNA sequence-based typing (SBT) genomic analyses, plasmid analyses, and automated repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) to identify epidemiologically significant traits capable of subtyping S. Enteritidis PT13.

higa toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7/NM (STEC O157) are zoonotic pathogens associated with many foodborne and water-borne outbreaks in North America and elsewhere. 1-3 Most STEC O157 infections have been linked to the consumption of beef, produce or water contaminated directly or indirectly by cattle manure. 1,4-7 However, STEC O157 carriage has been reported not only in cattle but also in other animal species, including other ruminants, swine and poultry. 2,8-11 In October 2011, a local health department in southwestern Ontario was notified of several cases of bloody diarrhoea in persons who had attended a four-day gathering that had ended four days earlier. The 59 attendees had shared several meals prepared by attendees and caterers, including pork from a pig roasted whole by a caterer at a pig roast, served fresh on the second day of the event along with a meal prepared by another caterer, and as cold and reheated leftovers the following day. This report describes the investigation of this outbreak, in which evidence implicated the pork as the source of illness. METHODS Case definition A confirmed case was an attendee reporting enteric symptoms (nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, and/or diarrhoea) beginning anytime from day 2 of the event to 10 days after the last day of the event, with laboratory confirmation of STEC O157:H7 infection. A probable case was an attendee reporting enteric symptoms (nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, and/or diarrhoea) during the same period without laboratory confirmation of STEC O157:H7 infection. Case finding and administration of outbreak questionnaire Menu lists of all meals served were used to produce a questionnaire on demographics, symptoms, onset and recovery dates, and food exposures (consumption of individual menu items) at shared meals. A list of attendees was provided by the host. Those who could be contacted were asked to complete the questionnaire, either by telephone or in person.

BackgroundIncreases in the number of salmonellosis cases due to Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in 2010 and 2011 prompted a public health investigation in Ontario, Canada. In this report, we describe the current epidemiology of travel-related (TR) SE, compare demographics, symptoms and phage types (PTs) of TR and domestically-acquired (DA) cases, and estimate the odds of acquiring SE by region of the world visited.MethodsAll incident cases of culture confirmed SE in Ontario obtained from isolates and specimens submitted to public health laboratories were included in this study. Demographic and illness characteristics of TR and DA cases were compared. A national travel survey was used to provide estimates for the number of travellers to various destinations to approximate rates of SE in travellers. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of acquiring SE when travelling to various world regions.ResultsOverall, 51.9% of SE cases were TR during the study period. This ranged from 35.7% TR cases in the summer travel period to 65.1% TR cases in the winter travel period. Compared to DA cases, TR cases were older and were less likely to seek hospital care. For Ontario travellers, the adjusted odds of acquiring SE was the highest for the Caribbean (OR 37.29, 95% CI 17.87-77.82) when compared to Europe. Certain PTs were more commonly associated with travel (e.g., 1, 4, 5b, 7a, Atypical) than with domestic infection. Of the TR cases, 88.9% were associated with travel to the Caribbean and Mexico region, of whom 90.1% reported staying on a resort. Within this region, there were distinct associations between PTs and countries.ConclusionsThere is a large burden of TR illness from SE in Ontario. Accurate classification of cases by travel history is important to better understand the source of infections. The findings emphasize the need to make travellers, especially to the Caribbean, and health professionals who provide advice to travellers, aware of this risk. The findings may be generalized to other jurisdictions with travel behaviours in their residents similar to Ontario residents.

In 2014 and 2015, three Canadian Salmonella serotype Enteritidis outbreak investigations implicated uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products produced at the same establishment, namely establishment A. In November 2014, a sustained increase in the number of reported domestically acquired Salmonella Enteritidis cases in Ontario led to the first outbreak investigation, which implicated uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products produced at establishment A. In June 2015, the identification of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns that had not been previously reported in Canada led to a national Salmonella Enteritidis investigation. Of 51 cases reported nationally, 35 were from Ontario. Uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products produced at establishment A were identified as the source of the outbreak, and public health action was taken as a result of this second investigation. In September 2015, a sustained increase in the number of domestically acquired Salmonella Enteritidis PT13a cases in Ontario led to a third outbreak investigation, which identified a total of 36 PT13a cases. Uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products produced at establishment A were again identified as the source of the outbreak. Outbreaks have been linked to uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products since the late 1990s. Information collected during the three outbreak investigations, and from other jurisdictions, suggests that the breaded and prebrowned appearance of the product, as well as factors related to product packaging and marketing, result in consumer misperception that this raw product is cooked. This misperception may result in mishandling and improper cooking. The three outbreaks described in this article highlight the potential ongoing risks to consumers from these products and support interventions to prevent contamination at the source level and infection at the consumer level.