Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Monday that three California facilities operated by Foster Farms have been implicated in an ongoing salmonella outbreak that has affected 278 people across 18 states.
- Foster Farms issued a press release stating that it is working with the USDA and Center for Disease Control to reduce the impact of the problem, which stemmed from chickens sold in California, Oregon and Washington.
- Foster Farms chickens were linked to an outbreak of the same salmonella strain in 2012 that affected 134 people across 13 states.
Dive Insight:
This outbreak comes during an unfortunate period of furloughs and shutdowns in the federal government. In this particular case, Wired reports that negatively impacted CDC operations could be a factor in the investigation.