CDC is collaborating with public health and agriculture officials in many states and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, National Poultry Improvement Plan (USDA-NPIP), and Veterinary Services to investigate three multistate outbreaks of human Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Mbandaka, and Salmonella Typhimurium infections linked to contact with chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry.
Public health investigators are using the PulseNet system to identify cases of illness that may be part of these outbreaks. In PulseNet, the national subtyping network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by CDC, DNA “fingerprints” of Salmonella bacteria are obtained through diagnostic testing with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, or PFGE, to identify cases of illness that may be part of this outbreak. The USDA-NPIP is a program that is intended to eliminate certain strains of Salmonella that cause illness in poultry breeding flocks and hatcheries, but does not certify that these live poultry are free from other strains of Salmonella that may cause human illness.