[Food borne infectious outbreaks, Austria 2005].

In Austria, a total of 606 food borne outbreaks, affecting 1,910 people altogether (including 368 hospitalized patients and 1 fatal outcome) were documented in 2005. Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. accounted for 99% of all reported outbreaks. Fortysix (8%) of the 606 outbreaks were acquired abroad. Bacteria caused all but one of the 560 domestically acquired food borne outbreaks: 427 (76%) were due to Salmonella spp., 128 (23%) due to Campylobacter spp. and two outbreaks each due to enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Yersinia enterocolitica. Norovirus caused an outbreak affecting 22 persons. The respective hospitalization rate for domestically acquired Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. infections was 20% and 16%. Of those outbreaks where information as to the source was provided, eggs were implicated in 57%, meat products (especially poultry) in 30% and milk or dairy products (especially raw milk) in 4%. The ratio between family outbreaks and general outbreaks was 89% to 11%. For general outbreaks the following locations of exposure were given: commercial food suppliers (incl. restaurants, cafeterias) 34 x, family celebrations 14 x, nursery schools 4 x, festivities (e.g. fairs) 3 x, nursing homes twice and once a mixed outbreak involving commercial food suppliers plus homes (Austria-wide S. Enteritidis PT19 outbreak). In our opinion, the relatively high number of family outbreaks merely reflects the still insufficient quality of epidemiological outbreak investigation in Austria, i.e. lack of consolidating individual clusters into larger food borne outbreaks which exceed district or provincial borders.