The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (the equivalent of our CDC) has confirmed at least 210 cases of Salmonella Virchow infection in the E.U. Half of the cases have been reported in France with additional diagnoses from the Netherlands, the U.K., Germany and Denmark. One case acquired by a visitor to Paris resulted in hospitalization subsequent to return to California.
The European Food Safety Authority is encouraging diagnostic and reference laboratories to sequence isolates from patients. Preliminary epidemiologic investigations have implicated chicken kabobs as the vehicle of infection. Traceback revealed that servings of chicken were derived from processing plants in five E.U. nations.
The outbreak strain identified on broiler farms in France is genetically related to a previous 2020 outbreak in the Netherlands involving contaminated chicken meat as the vehicle of infection.