Deadly lag: Why tracking outbreak took months

States’ voluntary reporting system may have delayed salmonella detection

	Highly magnified Salmonella Typhimurium bacteria, shown here, are the source of an ongoing outbreak of food poisoning linked to peanut products. Not all states are required to submit specimens for the precise DNA fingerprints that detect illnesses and lead to food recalls. View related photos

Detecting illnesses linked to the nation’s ongoing salmonella outbreak might have gone faster, health officials say, except for a hodgepodge of state laws and practices that delay precise identification of the potentially deadly bug.

Only about two-thirds of states require laboratories to submit salmonella specimens that contain the DNA fingerprints that confirm an outbreak. In the rest, it's merely voluntary, an msnbc.com survey showed.

Some states test every salmonella sample they collect using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, or PFGE, while others check only some. In Wisconsin and Texas, for instance, only about half are screened.

The result? Outbreaks like the current one can go undetected, delaying warnings about illnesses and recalls of poisonous foods. People became ill from eating tainted peanut products as far back as Sept. 1, but it was November before the outbreak was detected and early January before it hit the public health radar.

“It’s that whole idea of finding needles in haystacks,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director for foodborne illnesses at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We would like virtually all of the salmonella to be tested if we can.”

More information might have raised alarms earlier, Tauxe said, about the unusual Salmonella Typhimurium types linked to tainted peanut products that have sickened at least 655 people in 44 states and Canada, contributed to nine deaths and forced national recalls of more than 2,200 peanut products.

Mandatory testing urged

Food safety advocates have lobbied for years to require mandatory PFGE testing to detect the growing number of national outbreaks caused by foods ranging from spinach and peppers to peanut products.

“Having less than 100 percent compliance lowers the sensitivity of outbreak detection,” said John Besser, clinical lab manager for the Minnesota Department of Health. “The current system was designed to test local events such as the church potluck. The way you make the system better is by getting salmonella isolates tested.”

But states with voluntary programs say cooperative laboratory arrangements keep them on top of salmonella surveillance and that strained budgets and limited staffing force them to make hard choices. The same staffers who work on salmonella often are also monitoring HIV infections and tuberculosis, for instance.