CDC, health officials say Indiana cantaloupe likely cause of latest outbreak
CDC, health officials say Indiana cantaloupe likely cause of latest outbreak
WASHINGTON — Health officials have yet to name the southwestern Indiana farm that is being investigated as a likely source of a deadly Salmonella outbreak tied to cantaloupe.
On Aug. 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 141 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 20 states. Two deaths were reported from Kentucky, a state hard-hit by the outbreak. Illnesses began to appear July 7 to August 4 and 31 patients have been hospitalized.
Kentucky officials said an epidemiological investigation and confirmatory lab testing showed cantaloupes — most likely grown in Indiana — carry the outbreak strain of Salmonella.
“As a result of the initial investigations by the state health departments in Indiana and Kentucky, a farm in southwestern Indiana has contacted its distributors, which reach outside Indiana into other states, and is withdrawing its cantaloupe from the market place,” CDC said on Aug. 17. “The farm has agreed to cease distributing cantaloupes for the rest of the growing season.”
As of Aug. 20, FDA has yet to name the farm, though investigators have reportedly conducted a farm inspection. No recall has been formally announced. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it was clearing the shelves of southwestern Indiana-grown cantaloupes to protect consumers.
More illnesses may appear, CDC cautioned, because patients infected after July 26 might not be reported by the states yet.
In the meantime, health officials are advising consumers not to eat cantaloupes grown in southwestern Indiana and for retailers and food service operators to discontinue selling any cantaloupe from the region.
The latest outbreak comes nearly a year after Jensen Farms, of Holly, CO, was blamed for a deadly Listeria outbreak tied to shipments of Rocky Ford cantaloupe.
