ECDC links salmonella infections to kebab cases

The European Health Agency ECDC links kebab cases to Salmonella variant “Virchow ST16”. These are infections recorded in 2017 and occurred in five European countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In total, as of 2017, there have been 210 recorded outbreaks in various countries. France had the most cases, 111 to be exact. It was followed by the Netherlands with 34 infections, the United Kingdom with 32, Germany with 26, Ireland with 4, Denmark with 2 and finally the United States with 1 case.

Contaminated chicken meat

All these cases Connecting ECDC with Kebab Cases. “Kebab meat products made from contaminated chicken meat may cause salmonella infection,” the ECDC said. The company suspects a ‘clone’ is circulating in the poultry production chain in EU countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands. ECDC: “Due to the batch numbers of the contaminated kebab products and the lack of relevant Salmonella testing information, the exact source of the contamination could not be identified.”

NOS ‘Salmonella Virchow ST16’ has been detected five times in chicken meat in the Netherlands between 2018 and 2022. In two cases, bacteria were detected in chicken meat from two different slaughterhouses. The other three contaminated batches contained chicken from Brazil. It is not known where the bacteria came from,” the NOS said.

Increase in infections

No one died from the infection. However, the ECDC thinks that the number of confirmed cases represents only a small fraction of all infections. As long as the source of the infection is not yet identified, the agency is warning of further infections.

Source: ECDC