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. 2022 Apr;27(15):2200314.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.15.2200314.

Investigation of an international outbreak of multidrug-resistant monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium associated with chocolate products, EU/EEA and United Kingdom, February to April 2022

Lesley Larkin  1 , Maria Pardos de la Gandara  2 , Ann Hoban  1 , Caisey Pulford  1 , Nathalie Jourdan-Da Silva  3 , Henriette de Valk  3 , Lynda Browning  4 , Gerhard Falkenhorst  5 , Sandra Simon  6 , Raskit Lachmann  5 , Rikard Dryselius  7 , Nadja Karamehmedovic  8 , Stefan Börjesson  7 , Dieter van Cauteren  9 , Valeska Laisnez  10   9 , Wesley Mattheus  11 , Roan Pijnacker  12 , Maaike van den Beld  12 , Joël Mossong  13 , Catherine Ragimbeau  14 , Anne Vergison  13 , Lin Thorstensen Brandal  15 , Heidi Lange  15 , Patricia Garvey  16 , Charlotte Salgaard Nielsen  16   10 , Silvia Herrera León  17 , Carmen Varela  18 , Marie Chattaway  19 , François-Xavier Weill  2 , Derek Brown  20 , Paul McKeown  16
Affiliations

Investigation of an international outbreak of multidrug-resistant monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium associated with chocolate products, EU/EEA and United Kingdom, February to April 2022

Lesley Larkin et al. Euro Surveill. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

An extensive multi-country outbreak of multidrug-resistant monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium infection in 10 countries with 150 reported cases, predominantly affecting young children, has been linked to chocolate products produced by a large multinational company. Extensive withdrawals and recalls of multiple product lines have been undertaken. With Easter approaching, widespread product distribution and the vulnerability of the affected population, early and effective real-time sharing of microbiological and epidemiological information has been of critical importance in effectively managing this serious food-borne incident.

Keywords: Monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium; antimicrobial resistance profile; chocolate products; core-genome multi locus sequence typing; descriptive epidemiological evidence; multi-country collaboration; outbreak; whole genome sequencing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of confirmed and probable salmonellosis outbreak cases by week and country and by date of onseta,b, EU/EEA and UK, up to 10 April 2022 (n = 150)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of confirmed and probable salmonellosis outbreak cases, by age group and sex, EU/EEA and UK, up to 10 April 2022 (n = 150)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Genomic clustering of the monophasic S. Typhimurium isolates (HC5_296366) available on EnteroBase, EU/EEA and UK, up to 13 April 2022 (n = 99)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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