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 There may be a break in the salmonella case: Food and Drug Administration inspectors headed for farms in Florida and Mexico on Friday, as new clues emerge to the possible source of salmonella-tainted tomatoes that have now sickened 552 people.The FDA wouldn't say where in Florida and Mexico the hunt is centering. But officials stressed that the clues don't necessarily mean that a particular farm will turn out to be the culprit.
Investigators will pay special attention to big packing houses or distribution warehouses that handle tomatoes from many farms and where contamination could be spread, leading to what now appears to be the nation's largest-ever salmonella outbreak from tomatoes.
"It does not mean definitively the contamination occurred on a farm in Mexico or on a farm in Florida," said Dr. David Acheson, FDA's food safety chief. "This is not just the farms that we're inspecting, it's the whole distribution chain."
A surge of newly confirmed cases moved Friday's official count to 552 illnesses in 32 states, pushing the outbreak into record territory. In 2004, government records show there were three separate tomato-and-salmonella outbreaks that together totaled 561 illnesses, the largest of which sickened 429 people.
Most of Friday's newly reported cases were people who became sick in April or May but just completed testing to prove they had the outbreak strain of salmonella.
But the latest victim got sick on June 10, meaning the outbreak may not be over.
And Texas is clearly its center, with a doubling of known cases from 131 confirmed earlier in the week to 265 as of Friday.
In another case of the outbreak,
An official from the Tennessee Department of Health confirmed the patient is being interviewed by the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department. This is the first case of tomato-based salmonella in Tennessee outside of Middle Tennessee. Two cases have been reported in Williamson County and one was reported in Rutherford County.
None of the cases have resulted in eating tomatoes grown in Tennessee, said TDOH communication director Shelley Walker.
Tags: Health Diseases and Resources Salmonella outbreak |
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