Austria: foodborne outbreaks in 2023
In 2023, a total of 42 foodborne disease outbreaks were reported, 14 more than in 2022. A total of 222 people were affected by these outbreaks, more than twice as many as in 2022 (128 people), but significantly fewer than in 2019 (793 people) in pre-COVID-19 times. Of those affected, 38 people were hospitalized (2022: 57; 2021: 27; 2020: 17; 2019: 159), and there was one death (2022: 4 deaths; 2021: 2 deaths; 2020: no deaths; 2019: 1 death). The average number of people affected per outbreak was 5.3, with the number of people affected per outbreak ranging from 1 to 32. One individual is associated with a cross-country outbreak that began in 2022. Once again, the number of household outbreaks in 2023 was higher (n = 25) than that of general outbreaks (n = 20), and there were two outbreaks with unknown status.
Salmonella was the most common cause of outbreaks (21 outbreaks, 141 people affected, 1 death). Campylobacter ranked second (12 outbreaks, 26 cases), followed by five outbreaks caused by STEC (12 people), two outbreaks caused by norovirus (138 people), and one each caused by Listeria monocytogenes (3 people) and Yersinia enterocolitica (2 cases).Three major foodborne outbreaks in 2023 were caused by three different clusters of Salmonella Enteritidis ST11 (CT9791, CT13755, CT2114), resulting in 31 people falling ill in Austria, 10 of whom were hospitalized, with one patient dying. The contaminated food was identified as chicken kebab meat from a plant in Poland (1).
1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European Food Safety Authority. Three clusters of Salmonella Enteritidis ST11 infections linked to chicken meat and chicken meat products. EFSA Supporting Publications. 2023 Nov;20(11):8388E.
