How is a salmonella outbreak detected?
The CDC explains that in order to find cases in an outbreak of salmonella infections, public health laboratories serotype the salmonella bacteria and perform a kind of “DNA fingerprinting” on laboratory samples. Investigators determine whether the “DNA fingerprint” pattern of salmonella bacteria from one patient is identical to those from other patients in the outbreak and from the contaminated food. Bacteria with the same “DNA fingerprint” are likely to come from the same source. Once an outbreak (defined as two or more identical salmonella isolates) have been identified, public health officials then conduct intensive investigations, including interviews with ill people, to determine if people whose infecting bacteria match by “DNA fingerprinting” are part of a common source outbreak.
