Multinational food-borne outbreak investigations require cross-sectoral collaboration not only at the local, regional and national level, but also across countries. This typically involves a number of organisations such as health authorities, regulatory food and veterinary authorities, central and regional laboratories as well as clinicians. Successful outbreak investigation is built on a coordinated approach at all regulatory and administrative levels. This paper presents an example of how a coordinated effort with cross-national collaboration was beneficial in solving a multinational outbreak of Salmonella Braenderup in Europe in the spring of 2021.
S. Braenderup is a serovar of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, which causes symptoms of gastrointestinal illness including abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, nausea and fever [1]. S. Braendrup ranked 19th among Salmonella serovars reported to the European Surveillance System (TESSy) between 2015 and 2019 and around 300 cases of S. Braenderup in the EU/EEA are reported each year.
