Summary
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) conducts nontyphoidal1 Salmonella serotype testing on isolates recovered from raw meat and poultry products subject to sampling under the Pathogen Reduction Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) verification testing program. The results presented here provide an estimate of relative serotype distributions for each product class during the 16-year period following implementation of the PR/HACCP program (1998-2014). All data sets are reported by calendar year (CY).
Introduction
Salmonella is the leading cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States and causes an estimated 1.2 million illnesses, 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths, each year (4). Attribution data from 2014 estimates that 360,000 (30%) of foodborne illnesses are attributed to FSIS-regulated products, which is a 9.3% decrease when compared to 2010 (16,22). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the severity of disease depends on a variety of factors including host-specific and pathogen-specific factors including the serotype designation (6). Although there are more than 2,500 Salmonella serotypes, it is estimated that less than 100 of them cause human illness (6).
FSIS is committed to implementing, revising and enforcing programs that align with FSIS’ strategic goals and Healthy People 2020 Goals to reduce Salmonella illnesses attributable to FSIS-regulated products (16,17,18). To this end, FSIS reviews serotype data generated through PR/HACCP sampling to monitor trends of isolates identified in various products to proactively guide decisions affecting food safety and public health.
FoodWorld 