CDC concludes investigation on Salmonella outbreak linked to pork products

The CDC released a final report on a Salmonella outbreak that affected 192 people across five states.

CDC investigators and public health officials from the Washington Department of Health, Public Health—Seattle and King County and the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service identified six outbreak strains of Salmonella (I4,[5],12:i:-) and Salmonella Infantis between April 25 and Sept. 25 in Washington (n = 184), Oregon (n = 3), Idaho (n = 2), California (n = 2) and Alaska (n = 1). Thirty out of 180 infected patients with available data were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.

Washington’s health department confirmed that pork produced by Kapowsin Meats in Graham, Wash., was the likely source of infection. Pork was shipped to individuals, retail locations, institutions and distributors in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. The meat company voluntarily recalled more than 116,200 pounds of whole pigs on Aug. 13 after the presence of Salmonella (I4,[5],12:i:-) was detected in environmental samples collected at the company’s plant. After further testing, the recall was expanded to 523,380 pounds of associated pork products, and Kapowsin Meats voluntarily suspended operations on Aug. 27.

Seventy-six percent of patients who were interviewed (n = 123) reported consuming pork the week before becoming ill. Investigators also identified four people infected with the same DNA fingerprint of Salmonella Infantis who were included in the outbreak.

The CDC’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System conducted antibiotic resistance testing on clinical isolates from 10 patients infected with one of the outbreak strains of Salmonella (I4,[5],12:i:-). All samples were resistant to multiple antibiotics, including ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole and tetracycline.