The CDC reports as of May 27, 2014, a total of 126 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis or Salmonella Newport have been reported from 26 states. Since the last update on May 8, 2014, a total of 66 new ill persons have been reported from 18 states: Alabama (4), Colorado (1), Georgia (5), Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Kentucky (2), Maine (4), Montana (1), New Hampshire (1), New Mexico (1), New York (6), North Carolina (11), Ohio (7), Pennsylvania (7), South Carolina (3), Tennessee (5), Virginia (5), and West Virginia (1).
35% of ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.
Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback findings have linked this outbreak of human Salmonella Infantis and Salmonella Newport infections to contact with chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry from Mt. Healthy Hatcheries in Ohio.
82% of ill people reported contact with live poultry in the week before their illness began.
Samples from live poultry and the environments where the poultry live and roam were collected from two ill persons’ homes in Vermont. Testing of these samples yielded one of the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis.
Findings of multiple traceback investigations of live baby poultry from homes of ill persons have identified Mt. Healthy Hatcheries in Ohio as the source of chicks and ducklings. This is the same mail-order hatchery that has been associated with multiple outbreaks of Salmonella infections linked to live poultry in past years, including in 2012 and 2013.