Category Archives: salmonella-typhimurium

salmonella-typhimurium

Cold Stone

Outbreak: Cold Stone Cake Batter Ice Cream
Product: Cake Batter Ice Cream
Investigation Start Date: 06/29/2005
Location: Multi-state
Etiology: Salmonella Typhimurium
Earliest known case onset date: 05/21/2005
Latest case onset date: 07/04/2005
Confirmed / Presumptive Case Counts: 25 / 0
Positive Samples (Food): 2
Outbreak Summary:
The vehicle for this outbreak was ice cream made with a contaminated cake mix ingredient. Four patients reported eating cake batter flavor ice cream from two separate outlets of Cold Stone Creamery.
Details:
Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak Associated with Cake Batter Ice Cream from Cold Stone Creamery

Background
On June 29, 2005, the Minnesota Department of Health identified four Salmonella Typhimurium isolates with a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) subtype that was new to the PulseNet national database. Four patients reported eating cake batter flavor ice cream from two separate outlets of Cold Stone Creamery.

Methods
The PulseNet national database was queried to identify potential cases in other states. A case was defined as infection with an S. Typhimurium isolate that matched the outbreak PFGE pattern, and illness onset since May 2005. All cases were interviewed with a standard questionnaire. State and federal officials conducted a traceback of ice cream ingredients.

Results
We identified 25 cases in nine states (MN, 5; OR, 5; WA, 5; VA, 3; OH, 2; CA, IL, MA, MI, PA, 1 each); 24 reported eating cake batter ice cream from Chain A. The median age of cases was 13years (range, 2–32 years). The median incubation was 4 days (range, 1–7 days). Illness onset dates ranged from May 21 to July 4; four cases were hospitalized. Cold Stone Creamery voluntarily recalled cake batter ice cream on July 1. This flavor’s ingredients included a pasteurized liquid sweet cream base and Gold Medal Super Moist yellow cake mix. The sweet cream base was used in numerous other ice cream flavors, but the cake mix was used only in cake batter ice cream. The cake mix comprised spray-dried egg whites, flour, and several low-risk components. Tracebacks in Minnesota, Oregon, and Virginia implicated a single lot of cake mix produced on April 14, 2005. No manufacturing anomalies were identified for this lot; but two cake mix samples yielded the outbreak strain of S. Typhimurium. The Food and Drug Administration warned food retailers that cake mixes and flour are not considered “ready to eat” and should be heat processed before consumption.

Conclusion
The vehicle for this outbreak was ice cream made with a contaminated cake mix ingredient. While the ultimate source of contamination was not confirmed, we recommend a review of the efficacy of spray-drying egg whites as a kill step for Salmonella. Routine and rapid subtyping of bacterial isolates, coupled with a vigorous epidemiological response, is critical to identifying and abating multi-state outbreaks.
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salmonella-typhimurium

Rajneesh Bioterrorism

Outbreak: #1984-001
Product: Restaurant salad bars
Investigation Start Date: 1985
Location: Waso County, Oregon
Etiology: Salmonella Typhimurium
Earliest known case onset date: 9/9/1985
Latest case onset date: 10/10/1985
Presumptive / Confirmed Case Count: 0 / 751
Positive Samples (Food / Environmental): 0 / 0
Rajneesh Salmonellosis Grand Rounds (1/2)
1984 Terror Attack investigation presentation
     by Tom Török, April 24, 2014
This is a two-part presentation on the Oregon Health Authority investigation of this outbreak.
Rajneesh Salmonellosis Grand Rounds (2/2)
1984 Terror Attack investigation presentation
     by Michael Skeels, April 24, 2014
This is a two-part presentation on the Oregon Health Authority investigation of this outbreak.
1984 salmonellosis Rajneesh bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon
1984 salmonellosis Rajneesh bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon
1984 salmonellosis Rajneesh bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon
Outbreak Summary:
The 1984 Rajneesh salmonella outbreak was the single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history. Featured: the two-part presentation on the Oregon Health Authority investigation.
Details:
A leading group of followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho) had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections.

The incident was the first and single largest bio-terrorist attack in United States history. The attack is one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans since 1945.

751 people contracted salmonellosis as a result of the attack; 45 of them were hospitalized. There were no fatalities.

Although an initial investigation by the Oregon Public Health Division and the Centers for Disease Control did not rule out deliberate contamination, the agents and fact of contamination were only discovered a year later.

On February 28, 1985, Congressman James H. Weaver gave a speech in the United States House of Representatives in which he "accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants". At a press conference in September 1985, Rajneesh accused several of his followers of participation in this and other crimes, including an aborted plan in 1985 to assassinate a United States Attorney, and he asked State and Federal authorities to investigate.

Oregon Attorney General David B. Frohnmayer set up an Interagency Task Force, composed of Oregon State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and executed search warrants in Rajneeshpuram. A sample of bacteria matching the contaminant that had sickened the town residents was found in a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory. Two leading Rajneeshpuram officials were convicted on charges of attempted murder and served 29 months of 20-year sentences in a minimum-security federal prison.
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