Seven Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreaks in Australia Linked by Trace-Back and Whole Genome Sequencing

L Ford; Q Wang; R Stafford; KA Ressler; S Norton; C Shadbolt; K Hope; N Franklin; R Krsteski; A Carswell; GP Carter; T Seemann; P Howard; M Valcanis; CFS Castillo; J Bates; K Glass; DA Williamson; V Sintchenko; BP Howden; MD Kirk

Journal article

Seven Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreaks in Australia Linked by Trace-Back and Whole Genome Sequencing

L Ford, Q Wang, R Stafford, KA Ressler, S Norton, C Shadbolt, K Hope, N Franklin, R Krsteski, A Carswell, GP Carter, T Seemann, P Howard, M Valcanis, CFS Castillo, J Bates, K Glass, DA Williamson, V Sintchenko, BP Howden Show all

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease | MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1089/fpd.2017.2353

Abstract

Salmonella Typhimurium is a common cause of foodborne illness in Australia. We report on seven outbreaks of Salmonella Typhimurium multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) 03-26-13-08-523 (European convention 2-24-12-7-0212) in three Australian states and territories investigated between November 2015 and March 2016. We identified a common egg grading facility in five of the outbreaks. While no Salmonella Typhimurium was detected at the grading facility and eggs could not be traced back to a particular farm, whole genome sequencing (WGS) of isolates from cases from all seven outbreaks indicated a common source. WGS was able to provide higher discriminatory power than MLVA and..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Glen Carter Author

Torsten Seemann Author

Deborah Williamson Author

Ben Howden Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank ACT Health, NSW Health, Queensland Health, and OzFoodNet. We would also like to thank the laboratories that performed the serotyping, MLVA, and WGS, including the ICPMR, the MDU PHL, and Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services. Doherty Applied Microbial Genomics is funded by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at The University of Melbourne. The National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, funded a Practitioner Fellowship GNT1105905 to B.P.H. and Project Grant GNT1129770 to B.P.H., D.A.W., and M.D.K. Finally, we would like to thank Milica Stefanovic and SamMcEwen for their contribution to this project. This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.