The U.S. is in the midst of a salmonella outbreak that has so far sickened hundreds of people in at least 18 states. But state officials and scientists are hamstrung in their attempts to track it because of the government shutdown. Is there anything they can do except wait for Congress to get its act together? And what happens if things get worse?

An Uncoordinated Response

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced chicken produced at three Foster Farms plants in California has been linked to salmonella sickness. "The outbreak is ongoing," the alert said. News like this normally comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors foodborne illnesses. But thanks to the lapse in federal funding, the CDC is not running its normal surveillance, and most of its communications staff has been furloughed.

During an outbreak, the CDC not only leads federal agencies' response but also heads up the epidemiological work. That includes the lab and field research required to link cases across state lines and to attribute a specific person's illness to a specific food. This information can be used to close a processing plant, start a recall, or take other action. Right now, that work is not being done. And the CDC unit that tracks illnesses, overseeing a database called PulseNet, is working with less than half its normal staff.

That means state health officials like Katrina Hedberg, Oregon's state epidemiologist and chief health officer, are trying to sort it out for themselves. So far, seven Oregonians have been sickened, but they show signs of five slightly different strains of salmonella.

"We are saving (salmonella samples), but for PulseNet to be a real-time system, you do want to identify it right away. When there isn't anybody on the receiving end ..." Hedberg says, trailing off. "In Oregon, we can look for internal state clusters, but we don't have the ability to compare Oregon clusters to other states."

Scientists use molecular techniques to separate DNA by weight, allowing scientists to determine a pathogen's identity. The result looks a bit like a bar code, but is a unique ID for a specific strain of an organism. Then scientists can check different samples to match bar codes, thereby determining the origins and breadth of an outbreak.

But one big problem, Hedberg says, is that the tests might vary from state to state. "When Oregon runs the test, we run it a certain way," Hedberg says. "We can't necessarily match it up perfectly with, say, California. Those bar code bands might be a little thicker, or a little more separated. That's why you need federal coordination with these."

A Growing Outbreak

In all, 278 illnesses have been reported in 18 states, mostly in California, the USDA says. No one has died, but 43 percent of sick people have been hospitalized. It all started back in July, when the CDC started noticing reports in Oregon, Washington, and California of a strain called Salmonella Heidelberg, which was linked to chicken. The Food Safety and Inspection Service checked out four different Foster Farms plants and found three of them were producing poultry contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg. The CDC's website says the July outbreak "appears to be over," but the website is not being updated.

Foster Farms says it is working with federal agencies to reduce salmonella incidence on its raw chicken. "This activity is in response to an FSIS-issued alert regarding the increased incidence of Salmonella Heidelberg infection caused by eating undercooked or improperly handled chicken," the company says in a statement.

Bob Ehart, senior policy and science adviser for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, says that states are keeping tabs on the outbreak through hospitals, public health agencies, and agriculture departments, but they have no authority over the chicken plants. State-level meat inspections exist in 27 states, but rules differ throughout the country, he says. State authorities can take chicken off store shelves, but so far Foster Farms hasn't issued any recalls. (You can check for the chicken in question by looking for "P6137," "P6137A" or "P7632" somewhere on the package.)

Now What?

So, is our food safe? Some food inspections are reduced right now, with skeleton crews of "essential" workers. According to the FDA's own contingency plans, just 578 employees are on duty and the FDA is "unable to support the majority of its food safety, nutrition, and cosmetics activities." But the FSIS is on the job, and the CDC can bring workers back in the case of a big outbreak like this. Ehart says some workers were indeed being brought back Tuesday; the agency confirmed that about 30 workers returned.

The CDC has about 500 people considered essential for "safety of human life and protection of property," who can't be furloughed. Other staffers are part of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, which includes uniformed officers and people appointed by the president. They can't be furloughed, either, but they are working without pay. In all, 68 percent of the CDC is furloughed, and bringing back more than a handful of workers will require Congress to act.

Meanwhile, the USDA points out that you should always cook chicken to at least 165 degrees F, a temperature at which foodborne pathogens like salmonella die. And make sure to wash your knives, cutting boards, hands, and towels: This strain just happens to be antibiotic-resistant, too.

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