Nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to imported Andrew & Williamson cucumbers

The nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to imported Andrew & Williamson cucumbers is not the first illness outbreak linked to produce imported by that company. In 1997, a hepatitis A outbreak that sickened 260 faculty members and students in four different school districts in Calhoun county, Michigan was linked to strawberries sold by A&W. One student needed a liver transplant after this outbreak.

A report that was part of a TED talk at American University states that strawberries served in school lunches “were traced to a processing plant in San Diego, known as Andrew and Williamson.” The company shipped strawberries from the same lot to schools in five other states, including Arizona, southern California, Georgia, Iowa, and Tennessee.

As a result, the CDC and local officials set up clinics in the schools, giving the children immune globulin shots to protect them against the disease. Hundreds  of children had to be immunized as a result of this outbreak, even though the vaccinations were limited to children who ate the fruit.

California has been hardest hit by the Salmonella Poona outbreak linked to cucumbers imported by Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce. At least 120 people are sick in that state, and one person has died. Andrew & Williamson is based in San Diego, California.

That state originally warned consumers about the outbreak on September 4, 2015, the day that Andrew & Williamson recalled the product. Government officials informed the company that there was an epidemiologic association between the cucumbers and the outbreak. The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency found one of the outbreak strains on cucumbers that were collected from the Andrew & Williams facility.

Salmonella in cucumbers has sickened at least 85 people in Arizona, killing one of them, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. The cases, which have been reported from Apache, Coconino, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, and Yuma counties,  are part of a 33-state outbreak that has sickened 558 people.

The outbreak has been linked to cucumbers grown in Mexico and distributed in the U.S. by Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce of San Diego, California.  Three strains of Salmonella Poona are associated with this outbreak. Four state health departments – Arizona, California, Montana, and Nevada – have isolated Salmonella from Andrew & Williamson cucumbers collected from various locations. The Nevada, Arizona and Montana health departments have all isolated outbreak strains from cucumbers collected from retail locations. And the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency isolated one of the outbreak strains from cucumbers collected from the Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce facility.