Abstract
Salmonella Enteritidis phage type 6 (PT6) increased dramatically in the United Kingdom during 1997. The sharp rise suggests that PT6 contamination has spread rapidly throughout a basic food commodity; however, the source and food vehicle remain unknown. We present evidence from three outbreaks suggesting a possible link between PT6 and eggs. Poor documentation of the egg supply network continues to pose problems for public health investigators. Thorough investigation of all future PT6 outbreaks and case-control studies of sporadic infections are needed to confirm the etiology of PT6 infection.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (60.2 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Coyle E. F., Palmer S. R., Ribeiro C. D., Jones H. I., Howard A. J., Ward L., Rowe B. Salmonella enteritidis phage type 4 infection: association with hen's eggs. Lancet. 1988 Dec 3;2(8623):1295–1297. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)92902-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mishu B., Koehler J., Lee L. A., Rodrigue D., Brenner F. H., Blake P., Tauxe R. V. Outbreaks of Salmonella enteritidis infections in the United States, 1985-1991. J Infect Dis. 1994 Mar;169(3):547–552. doi: 10.1093/infdis/169.3.547. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rampling A. Salmonella enteritidis five years on. Lancet. 1993 Aug 7;342(8867):317–318. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(93)91466-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- St Louis M. E., Morse D. L., Potter M. E., DeMelfi T. M., Guzewich J. J., Tauxe R. V., Blake P. A. The emergence of grade A eggs as a major source of Salmonella enteritidis infections. New implications for the control of salmonellosis. JAMA. 1988 Apr 8;259(14):2103–2107. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stanley J., Jones C. S., Threlfall E. J. Evolutionary lines among Salmonella enteritidis phage types are identified by insertion sequence IS200 distribution. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 1991 Jul 15;66(1):83–89. doi: 10.1016/0378-1097(91)90425-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]