The project focused on the top pathogens in the US, including Salmonella and Campylobacter, and the team’s report attributes a majority of cases of foodborne illness to fresh vegetable produce – not animal products.

The full report is entitled 'Foodborne Illness Source Attribution Estimates for Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157 (E. coli O157), Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), and Campylobacter using Outbreak Surveillance Data, 1998-2012'.

However, the report’s information on eggs shows a rate of illness that is higher than the present rate of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) contamination of eggs. Since 2010, the level of SE contamination of layer houses has remained at an all time low and no major outbreaks have occurred since 2010.

The Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) is partnership between the FDA, the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Formed in 2011, IFSAC’s mission is to improve foodborne illness source attribution and provide better estimates on the human health impact of leading pathogens.

A more detailed article by Dr Eric Gingerich appeared in the Diamond V PoultryAdvisor March issue. This issue also included a research update about a commercial field trial testing the effect of Original XPC™ on prevalence and load of Salmonella in broilers received at the processing plant.

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