Salmonella Outbreak

The CDC, FSIS and the Washington State Department of Health and Public Health are taking a hard look at a salmonella outbreak that has not responded to a number of drugs. Some 134 people have become infected after consuming possibly contaminated pork products from Kapowsin Meats. Sixteen people have been hospitalized but there haven't been any death related to the outbreak.The company is voluntarily recalling approximately 116,262 pounds of whole hogs that may be contaminated with salmonella. Dr. Scott Lindquist with the Washington State Department of Health talks about this strain of salmonella.

LINDQUIST: Prior to 2010 we had no experience with this specific salmonella strain we have right now. After 2010 we saw a couple of cases a year, like four to six. So we had 22 cases from 2010 up to the present outbreak the problem is we saw a massive increase in those numbers.

He says they looked at all these strain to see how related they were and he says they were all exactly the same and they found that specific strain at the Kapowsin facility.

LINDQUIST: I would say that it's probably a lot more than 134 people. These 134 are only the folks who came to their medical provider and actually got a stool culture and when we look at outbreaks like this for every patient who got ill there's probably 29 people that didn't come in.

Of course they recommend all the usual precautions. The investigation continues into this outbreak.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.