Salmonella Mbandaka | The International Outbreak Museum

Outbreak: Hydro-Harvest alfalfa sprouts
Product: Alfalfa sprouts	Investigation Start Date: 02/01/1999
Location: Multi-State: OR, WA, ID.	Etiology: Salmonella Mbandaka
Earliest known case onset date: 01/09/1999	Latest case onset date: 06/12/1999
Confirmed / Presumptive Case Counts: 43 / 0	Positive Samples (Food / Environmental / Water) 12 / 0 / 0

Alfalfa seeds from a recalled lot, on exhibit in the museum.
Handful of contaminated alfalfa seeds.
Reclaimed packaging from recalled alfalfa sprouts on display in the museum.
Reclaimed packaging from recalled alfalfa sprouts on display in the museum.
Reclaimed packaging from recalled alfalfa sprouts on display in the museum.
Distribution of contaminated seeds that would later be sprouted into outbreak vehicles.
Epi curve

OUTBREAK SUMMARY:

The increasing popularity of sprouts as health foods was sharply followed by the epidemiologic discovery that sprouts are prone to transmitting foodborne pathogens like Salmonella. This was the largest "sproutbreak" of foodborne salmonellosis in Oregon since the multistate and multinational outbreak of Salmonella Newport infection in 1996, in which … Continue Reading ››