Abstract
Listeriosis patient isolates in Germany have shown a new identical pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern since 2012 (n = 66). Almost all isolates (Listeria monocytogenes serotype 1/2a) belonged to cases living in southern Germany, indicating an outbreak with a so far unknown source. Case numbers in 2015 are high (n = 28). No outbreak cases outside Germany have been reported. Next generation sequencing revealed the unique cluster type CT1248 and confirmed the outbreak. Investigations into the source are ongoing.
Highlights
L. monocytogenes, the causative agent of listeriosis is mostly caused by the consumption of contaminated food
Regarding the source of the causative food vehicle, the results showed a heterogeneous picture
Conflict of interestWrote the manuscript: HW; performed epidemiological analysis: HW, SV; supervised outbreak: FA, ET, KS; regional surveillance: EA, DL, AH, KS; performed laboratory investigation: RP, AP; ET, PH, MB; performed phylogenetic analyses: WR, SH; all authors revised the manuscript
Summary
We used the following case definition in our investigation: Possible outbreak cases were patients with the clinical picture of acute invasive listeriosis with onset since November 2012 with isolation of Listeria from normally sterile body fluids and detection of the characteristic PFGE pattern 13a/54. Temporal distribution of listeriosis outbreak cases (28 possible and 38 confirmed) with PFGE pattern 13a/54 and available notification date, Germany, 2012–15 (n = 66). None of the other participating countries reported cases with the outbreak PFGE pattern or NGS cluster types. Initial screening of food-related Listeria isolates in the strain collection of RKI and AGES found a total of six isolates (five from Austria and one from Germany) which had indistinguishable PFGE patterns but belonged to different NGS cluster types (Figure 1). A PCR protocol aiming to detect CT1248 was developed for screening of isolates and published on the KL website [4]
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