Canning Michelle, Bazaco Michael, Weed Brett, Birhane Meseret G, Whichard Jean, Gieraltowski Laura, Robyn Misha Park, Marshall Katherine, Torres Jeffrey, Viazis Stelios, Carstens Christina K, Armstrong Marie, Schwensohn Colin
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333 USA; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, 1299 Bethel Valley Rd, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA.
J Food Prot. 2025 May 8;88(7):100536. doi: 10.1016/j.jfp.2025.100536.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), working closely with public health and regulatory partners, investigate outbreaks of foodborne illness. Outbreak investigations continue to identify melons as an important source of outbreak-associated illness. We characterized the epidemiology of outbreaks linked to melons from 2012 to 2021, summarized public health responses to these outbreaks, and identified potential opportunities for prevention efforts and interventions. We queried CDC's Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) for all Salmonella, Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Listeria monocytogenes outbreaks linked to melons and collected data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Coordinated Outbreak Response & Evaluation (CORE) Network internal databases for information regarding outbreak investigations that involved FDA's evaluation and response activities. Descriptive statistics were calculated for outbreaks overall, by melon type, and by etiology, including the number of outbreaks, illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths, patient demographics including sex and age, outbreak duration, investigation duration, seasonality, serotypes, and food preparation and consumption settings. During 2012-2021, 18 outbreaks were linked to melons. The median number of outbreaks per year was 2 (range: 0-3); there were no melon-associated outbreaks reported in 2015. These 18 outbreaks resulted in 821 illnesses, 251 hospitalizations, and 10 deaths. More than half of the melon-associated Salmonella outbreaks in this reporting timeframe were linked to cantaloupe. Outbreak illnesses clustered in the U.S. Midwest and in outbreaks where the growing area was known, most were produced domestically (4/7, 57%), frequently grown in Indiana. Traceback and epidemiologic investigations demonstrated that contamination can occur at all points along the farm-to-fork continuum, requiring the need for pathogen control at every step.
美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）与公共卫生及监管合作伙伴密切合作，对食源性疾病暴发事件展开调查。暴发事件调查持续发现甜瓜是与暴发相关疾病的一个重要源头。我们对2012年至2021年与甜瓜相关的暴发事件的流行病学特征进行了描述，总结了针对这些暴发事件的公共卫生应对措施，并确定了预防工作和干预措施的潜在机会。我们查询了CDC的食源性疾病暴发监测系统（FDOSS），以获取所有与甜瓜相关的沙门氏菌、大肠杆菌（E. coli）和单核细胞增生李斯特菌暴发事件，并从美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）的协调暴发应对与评估（CORE）网络内部数据库收集数据，以获取有关涉及FDA评估和应对活动的暴发事件调查的信息。按总体暴发事件、甜瓜类型和病因计算描述性统计数据，包括暴发事件数量、发病数、住院数、死亡数、患者人口统计学特征（包括性别和年龄）、暴发持续时间、调查持续时间、季节性、血清型以及食品制备和消费环境。2012年至2021年期间，有18起暴发事件与甜瓜有关。每年暴发事件的中位数为2起（范围：0至3起）；2015年未报告与甜瓜相关的暴发事件。这18起暴发事件导致821人发病、251人住院和10人死亡。在此报告时间段内，超过一半与甜瓜相关的沙门氏菌暴发事件与哈密瓜有关。暴发疾病集中在美国中西部地区，在已知种植区域的暴发事件中，大多数是国内生产的（7起中的4起，57%），常见于印第安纳州种植。溯源和流行病学调查表明，从农场到餐桌的整个连续过程中的各个环节都可能发生污染，因此需要在每一步都进行病原体控制。
