Hannafords ground beef is a Salmonella threat no more.  The CDC today released its final report on the Hannafords outbreak, which sickened a total of 20 persons with the outbreak strain of antibiotic resistant Salmonella Typhimurium. The victims were from 7 states:  HI (1), KY (1), MA (1), ME (4), NH (6), NY (6), and VT (1). Among persons for whom information was available, illnesses began on or after October 8, 2011.

Summary of the investigation

Epidemiologic, traceback, and laboratory investigations conducted by officials in local, state, and federal public health, agriculture, and regulatory agencies linked this outbreak to eating ground beef purchased from Hannaford stores. Among 19 ill persons for whom exposure information was available, 14 (74%) reported consuming ground beef in the week before their illness began. This proportion is significantly higher than results from a survey of healthy persons in which 40% of persons interviewed reported consuming any ground beef at home in the 7 days before they were interviewed. Among the 14 ill persons who reported consuming ground beef, 12 (86%) reported purchasing ground beef from Hannaford stores. For ill persons for whom information was available, reported purchase dates ranged from October 12, 2011 to December 10, 2011. Product information (such as date and location of purchase of ground beef) was collected from ill persons and used by local, state, and federal public health, agriculture, and regulatory agencies to further the investigation.

Laboratory testing conducted by the State of Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory and the New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center Laboratories isolated the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium from 2 separate samples of leftover ground beef purchased from Hannaford stores and collected from unrelated ill persons’ homes in Maine and New York.