Researchers have explored the first-ever Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak involving the poultry sector in New Zealand.
Salmonella Enteritidis was behind a 2019 outbreak at a restaurant in Auckland. There were 17 confirmed and 21 probable cases. The likely source was a raw egg dessert.
Salmonella Enteritidis had not been detected in New Zealand poultry prior to 2021, according to a study published in the journal Microbial Genomics.
In February 2021, the same strain was isolated from a raw broiler chicken carcass sampled at the end of primary processing by a meat firm during routine testing.
Authorities opened an outbreak investigation after genomically indistinguishable Salmonella Enteritidis was isolated from various sources, including broiler and layer poultry flock production environments, as well as a hatchery that supplied the infected layer and broiler farms. It was also detected in environmental samples in 2020 and 2021 from the layer farm that supplied eggs to the restaurant in the 2019 outbreak.