After salmonella poisoned people in Minnesota in 2014, state germ sleuths already had a suspicion of what the culprit might be: raw, stuffed chicken that had caused close to half a dozen earlier outbreaks.
The question was, where had it come from, and who still had it in their freezers? Detailed DNA analysis showed six people were infected with an identical salmonella germ found on meat labeled chicken Kiev. Using a technology called whole genome sequencing, Minnesota health officials were able to determine precisely which cases were linked to the outbreak and track the infections back to a manufacturer. A health alert was issued, product was pulled from shelves, tested and recalled. The outbreak was halted with only one hospitalization for salmonellosis.
