The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Salmonella is responsible for 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States every year. Food is the source of most of these illnesses, and the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration estimates that over 23% of foodborne Salmonella illnesses are due to eating chicken and turkey.

FSIS testing data show that Salmonella contamination on poultry has been going down, but this has not translated into a reduction in human illnesses. Rates of human illness have remained stagnant over the last two decades, and we have not moved any closer to the national goal of a 25% reduction in Salmonella illnesses.

All of this data points toward the need for a new approach to controlling Salmonella in poultry in a way that reduces human Salmonella illnesses. These are just a few of the references and research articles we are considering as we look to develop a revised framework for Salmonella control in poultry.

To read more about Salmonella illnesses in humans:

Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration. Foodborne illness source attribution estimates for 2019 for Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter using multi-year outbreak surveillance data, United States. Atlanta, Georgia and Washington, District of Columbia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, FDA, USDA/FSIS. October 2021.

Scallan Walter EJ, Griffin PM, Bruce BB, Hoekstra RM. Estimating the Number of Illnesses Caused by Agents Transmitted Commonly Through Food: A Scoping Review. Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2021;18(12):841-858.

Richardson LC, Cole D, Hoekstra RM, Rajasingham A, Johnson SD, Bruce BB. Foods Implicated in U.S. Outbreaks Differ from the Types Most Commonly Consumed. J Food Prot. 2021;84(5):869-875.

Beshearse E, Bruce BB, Nane GF, et al. Attribution of Illnesses Transmitted by Food and Water to Comprehensive Transmission Pathways Using Structured Expert Judgment, United States. Emerg Infect Dis. 2021;27(1):182-195.

Tobolowsky FA, Cui Z, Hoekstra RM, Bruce BB. Salmonella Serotypes Associated with Illnesses after Thanksgiving Holiday, United States, 1998-2018. Emerg Infect Dis. 2022;28(1):210-213.

Studies that consider Salmonella serotypes and quantification

Cheng RA, Eade CR, Wiedmann M. Embracing Diversity: Differences in Virulence Mechanisms, Disease Severity, and Host Adaptations Contribute to the Success of Nontyphoidal Salmonella as a Foodborne Pathogen. Front Microbiol. 2019;10:1368. Published 2019 Jun 26.

Worley J, Meng J, Allard MW, Brown EW, Timme RE. Salmonella enterica Phylogeny Based on Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals Two New Clades and Novel Patterns of Horizontally Acquired Genetic Elements. mBio. 2018;9(6):e02303-18. Published 2018 Nov 27.

Lambertini E, Ruzante JM, Chew R, Apodaca VL and Kowalcyk BB. The public health impact of different microbiological criteria approaches for Salmonella in chicken parts. Microbial Risk Analysis. 2019;12:44-59

Lambertini E, Ruzante JM, Kowalcyk BB. The Public Health Impact of Implementing a Concentration-Based Microbiological Criterion for Controlling Salmonella in Ground Turkey. Risk Anal. 2021;41(8):1376-1395.

Research on in-plant process controls:

De Villena JF, Vargas DA, Bueno López R, et al. Bio-Mapping Indicators and Pathogen Loads in a Commercial Broiler Processing Facility Operating with High and Low Antimicrobial Intervention Levels. Foods. 2022;11(6):775. Published 2022 Mar 8.

Williams MS, Ebel EC and Allender HD. Industry-level changes in microbial contamination on market hog and broiler chicken carcasses between two locations in the slaughter process. Food Control. 2015;51:361-370.

The latest science on laboratory technology:

Harhay DM, Weinroth MD, Bono JL, Harhay GP, Bosilevac JM. Rapid estimation of Salmonella enterica contamination level in ground beef - Application of the time-to-positivity method using a combination of molecular detection and direct plating. Food Microbiol. 2021;93:103615.

Shariat N, DiMarzio MJ, Yin S, et al. The combination of CRISPR-MVLST and PFGE provides increased discriminatory power for differentiating human clinical isolates of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis. Food Microbiol. 2013;34(1):164-173.

Shariat N, Kirchner MK, Sandt CH, Trees E, Barrangou R, Dudley EG. Subtyping of Salmonella enterica serovar Newport outbreak isolates by CRISPR-MVLST and determination of the relationship between CRISPR-MVLST and PFGE results. J Clin Microbiol. 2013;51(7):2328-2336.

Shariat N, Sandt CH, DiMarzio MJ, Barrangou R, Dudley EG. CRISPR-MVLST subtyping of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovars Typhimurium and Heidelberg and application in identifying outbreak isolates. BMC Microbiol. 2013;13:254. Published 2013 Nov 12.