Fourteen people fell ill during a Staphylococcus aureus outbreak in China after eating contaminated donkey and goose meat.
In September 2024, the Puyang City CDC received a report of a suspected foodborne outbreak involving 14 people who developed nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea following a hotel banquet. This is the first outbreak of staph food poisoning recorded in Henan province.
Seventy people attended the event and 14 developed illness. Of those affected, two patients required hospitalization, ten received outpatient treatment and two with mild symptoms did not require any treatment.
According to the study published in China CDC Weekly, the estimated incubation period was four hours. The patients were 10 men and four women, aged 6 to 55 years. The majority of cases occurred in individuals aged 7 to 14 years.
Call to improve surveillance
Four strains of Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from 22 food scrap samples, two environmental swabs, and two patient anal swabs. Contaminated donkey and goose meat have been identified as the source of the outbreak.
The analysis revealed that all outbreak strains isolated from food matrices clustered with those from human samples.
The epidemic results from the contamination of donkey and goose meat, served as cold dishes, with Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins A and B.
The two contaminated products were chilled donkey meat and chilled Cantonese-style roast goose. However, the lack of samples from kitchen staff or the processing environment prevented identification of the source of contamination.
Public health measures included disinfecting areas where cold dishes, cutting boards and knives are stored, as well as disposing of any remaining food items.
Food safety training was also provided to all employees, emphasizing proper food processing techniques, rigorous hand hygiene practices and disinfection protocols.
“The detection of foodborne ST59 CA-MRSA clones in this outbreak highlights the prevalence and transmission risks associated with this hypervirulent lineage. These results highlight the critical need to strengthen surveillance measures for CA-MRSA among food industry workers,” the researchers said.
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