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Research article2003Peer reviewedOpen access

Febrile gastroenteritis after eating on-farm manufactured fresh cheese - an outbreak of listeriosis?

Carrique-Mas JJ, Hokeberg I, Andersson Y, Arneborn M, Tham W, Danielsson-Tham ML, Osterman B, Leffler M, Steen M, Eriksson E, Hedin G, Giesecke J

Abstract

An outbreak of febrile gastroenteritis affected consumers of on-farm manufactured dairy products from a summer farm in Sweden. Symptoms included diarrhoea, fever, stomach cramps and vomiting in 88, 60, 54 and 21 % of cases identified. The median incubation period was 31 h. A cohort study with 33 consumers showed an attack rate of 52 % and an association between the total amount of product eaten and illness (P = 0.07). Twenty-seven of 32 (84 %) stool, samples cultured for Listeria monocytogenes tested positive, although there was no association between clinical disease and the isolation of L. monocytogenes. In addition, gene sequences for VTEC and ETEC were detected in 6 and 1 subjects, respectively. Bacteriological analysis of cheese samples revealed heavy contamination with L. monocytogenes and coagulase positive staphylococci in all of them and gene markers for VTEC in one of them. Molecular profiles for L. monocytogenes isolated from dairy products, stool samples and an abscess from 1 patient who developed septic arthritis were identical. Results of both microbiological and epidemiological analyses point to L. monocytogenes as the most likely cause of this outbreak. The finding of markers for VTEC in some humans and cheese samples means that a mixed aetiology at least in some cases cannot be conclusively ruled out

Published in

Epidemiology and Infection
2003, Volume: 130, number: 1, pages: 79-86
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

      SLU Authors

    • Tham, Wilhelm

      • Department of Food Hygiene, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

      • Danielsson Tham, Marie-Louise

        • Department of Food Hygiene, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

        UKÄ Subject classification

        Food Science
        Other Health Sciences
        Agricultural Science

        Publication identifier

        DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268802008014

        Permanent link to this page (URI)

        https://res.slu.se/id/publ/1241