Seven people fell sick in a Salmonella outbreak in Australia in 2024 after eating kangaroo meat.
An outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen took place in August 2024 after consuming wild -hunted kangaroo in the Northern Territory (NT). Of the seven people who shared the food, all became sick; Three were confirmed and four were likely cases.
The median age was 32 with a reach of 23 to 65 years old and six were male. The median incubation period was 24 hours, but varied from 6 to 30 hours. The most important symptoms were diarrhea and abdominal pain. Two people were admitted to the hospital at night, but all cases recovered.
According to a study published in the magazine Transferable diseases IntelligenceAll seven cases knew each other and consumed the same meal – a single, locally hunted and slaughtered kangaroo.
Salmonella Muenchen is not uncommon on the northern territory. 87 reports were received between 2014 and 2023. An outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen 2017 in the state with 22 cases was linked to hunted turtle meat.
Multiple exposures
Kangaroo Meat is a basic food from the First Nations of Australia and has become popular with non-Nheemse Australians in recent decades. It is known from Kangaroos that they will accommodate Salmonella.
At the end of August 2024, the NT center for disease control was warned of a possible outbreak of Salmonellose in people who had consumed a wildly hunted kangaroo. It was detected while investigating routine salmonellose reports; Three cases lived separately with the Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department and Clinici reported that they were from a larger group that had consumed hunted kangaroo.
There was no environmental inspection of the site where meat was slaughtered because of the removal and there was no remaining kangaroo meat available for microbiological sampling.
A large red kangaroo was killed on the evening of 24 August by three hunters. The carcass remained in a pick-up truck until the next morning it was rare in a earth oven and was eaten by the hunters.
The site where the kangaroo carcass was left at night, had recommended temperatures far above 5 degrees C (41 degrees F) for the safe storage of raw meat.
Meat was then transported at temperatures that approached 35 to 37 degrees C (95 to 98.6 degrees F), which is the optimum growing conditions for Salmonella, and two more cases ate it on 25 August. The uncooked organs of the Kangaroo were washed and cooled with the remaining meat. On the morning of August 26, internal organs were cooked with the rare meat and sent to a second household where two more people ate and got sick.
Estimated Expansion Costs
Nine people in the second household ate a stir-fry meal that contained the kangaroo meat, but it was thoroughly cooked and none of them became unwell.
Researchers estimate the costs of the outbreak in the vicinity of Aud $ 10,000 (US $ 6,300) consisting of: pain and suffering, non-fatal productivity losses and direct losses, such as healthcare costs, medicines, diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical costs.
Pollution probably took place during the lingering/phasing out and was exacerbated by temperature abuse during storage and transport and insufficient cooking of meat. Soap and water were not available at the remote location where the kangaroo was cleaned, set out and left at night.
“To prevent contamination of hunted kangaroo meat, hands and knives, soap and water must be cleaned. Hands and knives must be washed regularly while slaughtering an animal to prevent the carcass from polluting. Broken meat must be stored and transported in a clean environment under 5 degrees C (41 degrees F) to reduce the risk of contamination. It is advisable to fully cook kangaroo meat to 72 degrees C (161.6 degrees F) to ensure killing all microbes, “says researchers.
(To register for a free subscription to Food Safety News, Click here.)