More than 40 people have been infected with a rare strain of Salmonella in Austria.
The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) said 49 sick people come from all nine federal states and have been infected with Salmonella Kenya since August 2025. Cases include 29 females and 20 males, with a median age of 43 and a range of 4 to 86 years old.
Patients live in Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Vorarlberg, and Vienna. Fifteen people needed hospital treatment.
The Ministry of Health asked AGES and affected states to investigate the foodborne outbreak, but the source is not yet known.
Salmonella Kenya is rare in Europe. However, several other European countries have also reported recent cases of this Salmonella strain.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) did not say which other countries were involved but a spokesman said the agency was monitoring the situation via the EpiPulse platform. EpiPulse is an online portal for European public health authorities to collect, analyze, share, and discuss infectious disease data.
Other Salmonella and E. coli data
Since May 2025, AGES has been investigating a different outbreak caused by Salmonella Enteritidis. At least 72 people are sick and 32 needed hospital treatment. The source of infection is thought to be eggs or egg products.
In 2024, Austria recorded 17 Salmonella outbreaks with 118 cases and one death.
Annual data covering E. coli in the country has also recently been published. A total of 2,060 samples were analyzed this past year, 1,950 of which were from humans.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) was detected in 998 stool samples, two serum samples and one urine sample. Overall, 853 patients were confirmed and two deaths were reported.
Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) occurred in 11 patients. HUS is a clinical syndrome related to E. coli, which can lead to kidney failure, brain damage and death. Seven outbreaks and 11 family clusters with two to four patients each were registered.
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