This year, 44 people in Austria have fallen ill with a strain of salmonella that has also caused outbreaks of illness in recent years: Salmonella Strathcona.
The special thing about this salmonella strain is that not a single illness caused by this strain was reported in Europe before 2010. In 2011, the first foodborne outbreak occurred in several European countries; in 2023, reports of infections with Salmonella(S.) Strathcona increased in Europe, including in Austria: 44 people fell ill in Austria that year and 26 people in 2024.
The increase in the number of cases in Europe in 2023 led to cross-national and cross-sector collaboration. The results of these investigations, in which AGES played a key role, have now been published in a scientific publication.
The aim of the investigations was to identify the vector in 2023 and to describe the epidemiology of S. Strathcona infections in 17 European countries in the period 2011-2024. 662 infections with S. Strathcona were identified, 469 of which were confirmed by molecular biology. The genetic relationship of S. Strathcona isolates was also investigated as part of the epidemiological investigations: Most of the sequenced isolates were strongly genetically related over time and across the entire study area. This indicated a common source. Epidemiological and traceability investigations by AGES identified small tomatoes from Sicily as a suspected foodborne vector in 2023 (as well as a Danish outbreak investigation in 2011).