Occurrence of Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin in Austria.
In Austria, Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin, a bovine-adapted serovar, rarely causes human infections. In the year 2000, Austria was within the European mean with an incidence of 0.1 per million inhabitants. Our data show that the vast majority of all Austrian serovar Dublin infections can be traced to two Tyrolian districts. This concentration of cases can be explained by a particularly traditional aspect of cattle farming in Tyrol, the alpine pasture. There is increased risk of cross-infection due to the communal keeping of animals from various farms. Infected cattle are a source of infection for people, and contagion usually occurs from eating beef and drinking cow's milk. Using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and automated ribotyping, 3 out of 5 available isolates from human infections could be traced to characteristic Tyrolian S. Dublin clones. Bacteriological screening of herds with a known history of S. Dublin infection would be a start to prevent future contamination of alpine pastures through latently infected cattle excreting potentially infectious feces. Bacteriological screening for fecal carriage before the return of cattle from pastures known to be connected with infections could prevent cross-contamination of large mixed herds.
Allerberger
Franz
F
Department of Bacteriology, Institute for Hygiene and Social Medicine, University Innsbruck, Schöpfstrasse 41, A-6020 Innsbruck. franz.allerberger@uibk.ac.at
Liesegang
Almut
A
Grif
Katharina
K
Khaschabi
Daryusch
D
Prager
Rita
R
Danzl
Johann
J
Höck
Franz
F
Ottl
Josef
J
Dierich
Manfred P
MP
Berghold
Christian
C
Neckstaller
Ingeborg
I
Tschäpe
Helmut
H
Fisher
Ian
I
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D002417:Cattle / Q000382:microbiology; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000662:veterinary; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012478:Salmonella Food Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000145:classification*; D014871:Water Microbiology; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission