Miller T, Prager R, Rabsch W, Fehlhaber K, Voss M (2010): Epidemiological relationship between Salmonella Infantis isolates of human and broiler origin
Lohmann Inf. 45 (2): 27-31.
Salmonella (S.) Infantis infections in humans transmitted by food are increasingly observed around the world. S. Infantis strains from several origins isolated between 2002 and 2009 were subtyped by phage typing and macrorestriction analysis (MRA). It was found that the 617 S. Infantis isolates investigated belonged to 47 defined phage-types and the 255 isolates characterized by MRA to 45 XbaI-types. The combination of these typing methods revealed a great diversity of clones among the S. Infantis isolates as well as occurrence of identical clones (PT 1/XbaI 34, PT 29/XbaI 27) in chicken meat and in humans in Germany over several years. Several hospital infections caused by these above-mentioned clones were also identified. Circulation of clone PT 29/XbaI 5 in broiler flocks between Hungary und Germany has been demonstrated by complex typing. The development of country-specific epidemiologic processes was also observed as PT 61 in Iceland. The change of predominant Salmonella serovars in the ecologic niche “broiler”, vacated by vaccination against S. Typhimurium and S . Enteritidis, may lead to an epidemic increase of S. Infantis in broiler flocks. Routine application of the new phage typing scheme can be used to monitor the spread of S. Infantis.