Abstract

BackgroundIdentifying risk factors for Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) infections in Ontario will assist public health authorities to design effective control and prevention programs to reduce the burden of SE infections. Our research objective was to identify risk factors for acquiring SE infections with various phage types (PT) in Ontario, Canada. We hypothesized that certain PTs (e.g., PT8 and PT13a) have specific risk factors for infection.MethodsOur study included endemic SE cases with various PTs whose isolates were submitted to the Public Health Laboratory-Toronto from January 20th to August 12th, 2011. Cases were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire that included questions pertaining to demographics, travel history, clinical symptoms, contact with animals, and food exposures. A multinomial logistic regression method using the Generalized Linear Latent and Mixed Model procedure and a case-case study design were used to identify risk factors for acquiring SE infections with various PTs in Ontario, Canada. In the multinomial logistic regression model, the outcome variable had three categories representing human infections caused by SE PT8, PT13a, and all other SE PTs (i.e., non-PT8/non-PT13a) as a referent category to which the other two categories were compared.ResultsIn the multivariable model, SE PT8 was positively associated with contact with dogs (OR=2.17, 95% CI 1.01-4.68) and negatively associated with pepper consumption (OR=0.35, 95% CI 0.13-0.94), after adjusting for age categories and gender, and using exposure periods and health regions as random effects to account for clustering.ConclusionsOur study findings offer interesting hypotheses about the role of phage type-specific risk factors. Multinomial logistic regression analysis and the case-case study approach are novel methodologies to evaluate associations among SE infections with different PTs and various risk factors.

Highlights

  • Identifying risk factors for Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) infections in Ontario will assist public health authorities to design effective control and prevention programs to reduce the burden of SE infections

  • Salmonellosis is a Reportable Disease under provincial legislation and all infections confirmed by hospital, private, and public health laboratories must be reported to the local public health units for follow-up

  • Travelled outside United States (US) or Canada in 3 days prior to symptom onset (260)*

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Summary

Introduction

Identifying risk factors for Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) infections in Ontario will assist public health authorities to design effective control and prevention programs to reduce the burden of SE infections. Our research objective was to identify risk factors for acquiring SE infections with various phage types (PT) in Ontario, Canada. We hypothesized that certain PTs (e.g., PT8 and PT13a) have specific risk factors for infection. In Ontario and Canada, integrated disease surveillance systems reported an increasing trend of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) infections in humans showing a threefold increase between 2003 and 2009 [4]. The SE phage types (PT) influencing this increase were PT13, 8 and 13a. These PTs exhibited a seasonal, summer increase and were mostly associated with domestically acquired infections. The number of infections with other PTs (4, 1, 6a) increased during the winter months and it was demonstrated that they were largely associated with international travel [5]

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