As the safe food project of The Pew Charitable Trusts released its report on weaknesses in Salmonella regulation on Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered an update on the ongoing outbreak of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg linked to chicken produced by Foster Farms.
At least 416 people in 23 states and Puerto Rico have been sickened, CDC reports. That count is up another 27 cases since the Nov. 20 report. Most of the victims (74 percent) live in California.
Thirteen percent of the victims have developed blood infections as a result of their illness. Typically, only five percent of people with Salmonella infections develop blood infections.
Foster Farms has not initiated a recall, instead opting to comply with U.S. Department of Agriculture requests to mitigate issues at three central California facilities tied to the outbreak.
