Multi‐country outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka ST413 linked to consumption of chicken meat products in the EU/EEA and the UK – first update

A cross‐border outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka ST413 has been ongoing in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and the United Kingdom (UK) for over two years since September 2021. By 30 November 2022, 196 cases had been recorded and published in a joint European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Rapid Outbreak Assessment. By 15 March 2024, 300 cases (an increase of 104 cases) had been reported in Estonia (n = 3), Finland (n = 98), France (n = 16), Germany (n = 2), Ireland (n = 7), the Netherlands (n = 1), and the United Kingdom (n = 173), according to the European case definition. Twenty‐three cases were hospitalised, six cases had septicaemia and one case died in the UK.

In November 2022, when the first assessment was published, ready‐to‐eat chicken products and/or fresh chicken meat were identified as probable vehicles of infection based on case interviews in Finland and the UK. Subsequent investigations by the food safety authorities in Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands and the sharing of genomic food information with EFSA in 2024 identified frozen steam‐cooked chicken breast, produced in Ukraine, as the vehicle of infections. The contaminated batches had been imported by non‐EU operators and distributed in the EU/EEA and UK markets.

The shelf lives of contaminated frozen chicken meat products expired in November and December 2023. The most recent cases were detected in Finland in October 2023 and in the UK in February 2024. Assuming that the identified contaminated batches are no longer on the market, and given the expiration dates and control measures implemented, the likelihood of new infections occurring with the outbreak strain from these batches is low. However, despite the implementation of control measures, cases continued to occur throughout 2023 in the EU/EEA and in early 2024 in the UK, suggesting undetected routes of exposure which require further investigation and pose a continued, albeit reduced, risk for new infections.