title: First outbreak of food poisoning caused by Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Berta in Italy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide an epidemiologic interpretation of a suspected outbreak of food poisoning caused by Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Berta strains isolated from humans and from the leftovers of the implicated foods (cream, dairy-based desserts and eggs).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We have correlated the similarity between the strains through genotyping with Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), studying antimicrobial sensitivity patterns and epidemiological investigation. The clonal origin of the outbreak was confirmed by all laboratory tests. PFGE analysis of the restriction profiles obtained with XbaI and SpeI revealed a certainly correlation from the strains isolated from the various sources, while the antimicrobial sensitivity pattern was the same in all cases, with all strains sensitive to all antibiotics tested.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Poor hygiene conditions in the facility concerned, lack of hygiene in food handling, high summer temperatures and positive cultures from asymptomatic staff could all be implicated in the infection, with food being the means through which it spread.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study describes the first outbreak of food poisoning caused by Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Berta (Salmonella Berta) reported in Italy. It confirms the importance of correlating epidemiological investigations with genotyping and phenotyping to understand the dynamics of infection.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Dell'Abruzzo e Del Molise G. Caporale, Teramo, Italy. e.digiannatale@izs.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Di Giannatale
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sacchini
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Persiani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alessiani
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marotta
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zilli
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005511:Food Handling; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D012478:Salmonella Food Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics