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17 Jul 2018
A group of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) noted 13 cases of Salmonella enterica infection in sick people in a dozen states during November 2008. The typical symptoms of salmonellosis (infection with salmonella) include vomiting and diarrhea, and may result from ingesting any of more than 1,500 different *strains, *or unique subspecies, of S. enterica. Two weeks later, a similar outbreak of 27 cases of the disease, spread across 14 states, was found to be caused by the same strain of the organism seen in the first outbreak. By February 2009, 682 people from 46 states and Canada had become infected, nine had died, a large corporation had filed for bankruptcy, and several criminal investigations had begun. Pulse Net is a branch of the CDC that seeks to identify food-borne disease clusters by carefully studying the bacterial isolates thought to be the source of an outbreak. Usually this means obtaining DNA profiles, called fingerprints*, of each bacterium and using that information to compare*isolates *(isolated strains of bacteria) from different outbreaks. Because the fingerprints from the two outbreak strains in this case were similar to one anotherâbut also different from any fingerprint within the Pulse Net databaseâCDC scientists initiated an epidemiological investigation .S. enterica was identified in unopened 5-pound containers of King Nut peanut butter in Minnesota and Connecticut, in the peanut butter factory,and in bacteria isolated from the patients. At the time, King Nut peanut butter was manufactured by the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) in Blakely, Georgia, and sold to schools, hospitals, restaurants, cafeterias, and other large institutions rather than directly to consumers. Examination of the bacteria revealed several different S. enterica strains, but only a few of them were linked to the illnesses.
Without knowing the specific details of DNA fingerprinting ,how do you think these profilescould be used to show that a particular bacterial strain is not part of an outbreak?
A group of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) noted 13 cases of Salmonella enterica infection in sick people in a dozen states during November 2008. The typical symptoms of salmonellosis (infection with salmonella) include vomiting and diarrhea, and may result from ingesting any of more than 1,500 different *strains, *or unique subspecies, of S. enterica. Two weeks later, a similar outbreak of 27 cases of the disease, spread across 14 states, was found to be caused by the same strain of the organism seen in the first outbreak. By February 2009, 682 people from 46 states and Canada had become infected, nine had died, a large corporation had filed for bankruptcy, and several criminal investigations had begun. Pulse Net is a branch of the CDC that seeks to identify food-borne disease clusters by carefully studying the bacterial isolates thought to be the source of an outbreak. Usually this means obtaining DNA profiles, called fingerprints*, of each bacterium and using that information to compare*isolates *(isolated strains of bacteria) from different outbreaks. Because the fingerprints from the two outbreak strains in this case were similar to one anotherâbut also different from any fingerprint within the Pulse Net databaseâCDC scientists initiated an epidemiological investigation .S. enterica was identified in unopened 5-pound containers of King Nut peanut butter in Minnesota and Connecticut, in the peanut butter factory,and in bacteria isolated from the patients. At the time, King Nut peanut butter was manufactured by the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) in Blakely, Georgia, and sold to schools, hospitals, restaurants, cafeterias, and other large institutions rather than directly to consumers. Examination of the bacteria revealed several different S. enterica strains, but only a few of them were linked to the illnesses.
Without knowing the specific details of DNA fingerprinting ,how do you think these profilescould be used to show that a particular bacterial strain is not part of an outbreak?
Patrina SchowalterLv2
18 Jul 2018
