Open AccessA multi‐state outbreak of Salmonella bredeney food poisoning: a case control study
Author(s) -
Baker Deborah F.,
Kraa Edward,
Corbett Stephen J.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1998.tb01437.x
Subject(s) - outbreak , odds ratio , salmonella , geography , neighbourhood (mathematics) , odds , environmental health , food poisoning , veterinary medicine , medicine , biology , logistic regression , virology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , pathology , bacteria , genetics
Objective: To investigate a multi‐state outbreak of Salmonella bredeney. Design: Case interviews followed by an age and neighbourhood matched case control study. Participants: People with laboratory‐ confirmed S. bredeney and controls matched on age and geographical location in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Victoria. Results: We identified 157 persons with S. bredeney spread throughout the eastern states and the ACT. In the matched analysis, cold meat and chicken demonstrated a significant odds ratio of 4.4 (p=0.017) and 4.2 (p=0.02) respectively. Among primary cases, the odds ratio for chicken was 6.0 (p=0.01) and for ground pepper was 3.75 (p=0.04). Conclusions: The most likely source of this outbreak was a product contaminated at the point of manufacture and distributed widely within NSW and the ACT and, to a lesser extent, Queensland (Brisbane) and Melbourne. The most probable food is a meat or chicken product, followed by substantial cross contamination of other meat products at retail outlets, which served to amplify the outbreak.