22.09.2012

EFSA - ECDC

Salmonella enterica serovar Stanley (S. Stanley) is one of the serovars most frequently associated with human infections in south-east Asia. S. Stanley was the second most common serovar in human salmonellosis in Thailand in the years 2002 to 2007, accounting for 11% of all salmonellosis cases there.
In 2011, an outbreak of S. Stanley infection occurred in Austria due to the consumption of turkey kebabs.

An outbreak of Salmonella Stanley infection involving 167 confirmed and 254 probable cases is on-going in several Member States of the European Union (EU). As cases do not have travel history outside the EU within the usual incubation period for salmonellosis, these findings strongly suggest a multi-state outbreak currently taking place in several countries in the EU.

The descriptive epidemiology of human cases indicates a transmission originating from a persistent common source or multiple sources in the EU that are contaminated with isolates indistinguishable by XbaI-PFGE.

Food and veterinary investigations conducted in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary identified an indistinguishable XbaI-PFGE fingerprint and a common resistance to nalidixic acid with concomitant decreased susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, among isolates originating from the turkey production chain (turkeys and turkey meat). Isolates with indistinguishable PFGE patterns were also detected in some cases from broiler flocks (breeding and fattening chicken flocks) and meat from other animal species (broiler meat, beef and pork.)

The epidemiological and microbiological information gathered through the public health, food and veterinary investigations strongly suggest that the turkey production chain is the source of the outbreak. However, the contribution of other food and animal sources, such as beef, pork and broiler meat to the outbreak cannot be ruled out.