Multi-country outbreak of Salmonella agona linked to Raw Cucumbers

A multi-country (United Kingdom (129 cases), Finland (15), Denmark, Germany and Ireland (one case each)) outbreak of Salmonella Agona (S. Agona) is under investigation in the European Union (EU), with cases retrospectively identified back to 2014. Overall, 147 outbreak cases have been reported. The outbreak was first detected in the United Kingdom using WGS. Seventeen S. Agona food isolates from 2018, detected in the, were found to be closely genetically related to the human strains. The food isolates were from cucumbers sampled during processing before and after washing (11 isolates) and ready to eat (RTE) food products containing cucumbers (six isolates). The microbiological evidence suggests RTE products containing cucumbers as a possible vehicle of infection but so far it has not been possible to identify the specific point in the production chain where the contamination occurred. Although the cucumbers used in all final contaminated products originated from Spain for a limited period (from November 2017 to April 2018), no connection between supply chains was identified @ https://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/scientific_output/EN-1465.pdf