title: Chicken salad as the source of a case of Listeria monocytogenes infection in Connecticut.
abstract: Listeriosis is a severe infection with high morbidity and mortality. We report a fatal case of listeriosis in a patient with a history of Crohn's disease who consumed chicken salad purchased from a retail food establishment before developing listeriosis. As part of the regulatory testing programs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs found that chicken products from a single food-production establishment were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, resulting in a product recall. The case patient's Listeria isolate was subtyped by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and matched the Listeria isolates from the recalled chicken products. Identification of the source of Listeria involved collaboration among two state public health laboratories and epidemiologists and state and federal regulatory agencies. PFGE typing can be used to reveal correlations between clusters of human illness and contaminated food products and to rapidly identify sources of Listeria infection to allow implementation of corrective actions at both the state and national levels.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Emerging Infections Program, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA. ruthanne.marcus@yale.edu
authors.forename: Ruthanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marcus
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hurd
authors.forename: Laurn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mank
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mshar
authors.forename: Quyen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Phan
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Kara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watarida
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Salfinger
authors.forename: Sun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Maria L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Bonnie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kissler
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D003237:Connecticut / Q000453:epidemiology; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008088:Listeriosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*