– After an extensive outbreak investigation, cucumber from a Spanish supplier points out as a likely source of infection in a salmonella outbreak that started in November, writes the Norwegian Food Safety Authority in a press release on Tuesday. FHI also reports the same finding. They also add that the salmonella outbreak appears to be over, because no new cases of illness have been reported in recent weeks. – The outbreak is probably over, but we cannot rule out that more individual cases may appear. We are following the situation closely, says senior advisor Heidi Lange at FHI. 72 people registered with infection The product is probably no longer on the market either. – These batches of cucumber are no longer on the market, and we have therefore not been able to test the product for the outbreak bacteria, says Lange. There are now 72 people registered who have become ill from the gastrointestinal bacterium Salmonella Agona. The peak of infection in Norway was in mid-November, and the last reported case of the disease came on 2 December. Cases of the same outbreak strain have also been reported in Sweden and the Netherlands, in the same period. – It is not always possible to find the source of infection in such outbreaks, but now some batches of cucumber from a Spanish supplier have identified themselves as the most likely source of infection, says Catherine Signe Svindland, senior adviser in the Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s biological food safety section.
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