Abstract
In June 2003, the Dutch national Salmonella centre reported a significant excess isolation rate of Salmonella Enteritidis when compared with earlier years in most regional public health laboratories. By the end of 2003, this amounted to an extra 540 laboratory confirmed cases for the whole of the Netherlands, which implies an estimated 7500 extra cases of gastroenteritis caused by S. Enteritidis in the general population, an increase of 50% on previous years. The hot summer could not explain the findings. Strong evidence has been found to suggest that the increase in importation of salmonella contaminated eggs, as a side effect of a concurrent avian influenza outbreak, was the most probable reason for this excess.
Highlights
In June 2003, the Dutch National Salmonella Centre reported a significant excess Salmonella isolation rate compared to previous years in most regional public health laboratories (FIGURE 1)
We try to indicate the possible role in the 2003 excess of the hot summer compared with that of the increase of imports of eggs due to the concurrent avian influenza outbreak
Salmonella surveillance The data are from the National Salmonella Centre (NSC) and the National and European Reference Laboratory (CRL) for Salmonella at RIVM that performs the sero- and phage-typing of isolates taken from humans and animals, from food, animal feed and from the environment [2]
Summary
W van Pelt , D Mevius, HG Stoelhorst, S Kovats, AW van de Giessen, W Wannet, YTHP Duynhoven. In June 2003, the NSC (Dutch National Salmonella Centre) reported a significant excess isolation rate of Salmonella Enteritidis when compared with earlier years in most regional public health laboratories. By the end of 2003, this amounted to an extra 540 laboratory confirmed cases for the whole of the Netherlands, which implies an estimated 7500 extra cases of gastroenteritis caused by S. Enteritidis in the general population, an increase of 50% on previous years. The hot summer could not explain the findings. Strong evidence has been found to suggest that the increase in importation of salmonella contaminated eggs, as a side effect of a concurrent avian influenza outbreak, was the most probable reason for this excess
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