According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority, a recent outbreak involving 300 patients in six nations occurred during the last quarter of 2021 with the most recent patient diagnosed on December 22nd.  Of 80 cases investigated, 25 were hospitalized and two fatalities were recorded.  According to the ECDC 801 genetically close isolates were obtained from patients between 2017 and 2020 with 300 in France and 255 in the U.K.

Traceback investigations demonstrated that a specific packing plant in Spain was the source of the 2021 cluster with three supply farms implicated.  One of these facilities was shown to be contaminated with the common patient-derived SE isolate as denoted by whole genome sequencing.  Investigation by authorities in Spain determined that mandated sampling had not been conducted since November 2019.  This suggests severe deficiencies in the implementation of the Salmonella detection program relying on farm management.

Apart from the numerous cases occurring in the EU attributed to flocks infected with SE in Poland, the infections associated with Spain commenced in 2019. More than 1,000 SE cases occurred in seven E.U. nations and the U.K. from 2013 to 2021.  There was a marked increase in incidence rate from 2018 onwards with between two and four hundred cases annually.

It is evident that despite vaccination and various national SE monitoring programs, there are marked deficiencies in procedures to detect infected flocks both at the parent and commercial levels suggesting the need for harmonization, including surveillance on farms supplying plants that export within the E.U.