The Wicomico River raw oysters Salmonella Telelkebir outbreak has grown, according to an update posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The case count is now 28 in 13 states (one new), with five hospitalizations.
The case count by state is: Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Iowa (1), Illinois (1), Kentucky (1), Michigan (1), New Jersey (1), Colorado (2), Indiana (2), Maryland (2), Virginia (3), New York (4), and Pennsylvania (8). The new state is Indiana. The patient age range is from 1 to 86 years. And illness onset dates range from May 29, 2026 to October 6, 2026. Five people have been hospitalized because they are so ill.
The oysters were harvested from the Wicomico River by the Little Wicomico Oyster Company in Virginia. The recalled oysters are past their shelf life, and oysters are not being harvested from that area at this time.
Public health officials are interviewing people about the foods they ate the week before they got sick. Of 14 people interviewed, 11, or 79%, said they ate raw oysters. That is significantly higher than the 1.6% of respondents who reported eating oysters in the FoodNet Population survey.
The PulseNet System is used to identify people who are part of this outbreak. Whole genome sequencing performed on patient isolates shows that they are closely related genetically, which means that people in this outbreak likely got sick from eating the same food.
The Virginia Department of Health collected raw oysters for testing from the river. Samples tested positive for Salmonella, and whole genome sequencing showed that some of these samples are the same strain of Salmonella Telelkebir making people sick in this outbreak. Other strains of Salmonella were also found, including Salmonella Newport and Salmonella Hartford. Officials in Pennsylvania also collected samples of raw oysters from a distributor who sold them from the Little Wicomico Oyster Company. A strain of Salmonella Litchfield was identified which did not match any other patient isolates in the database.
The FDA states that the oysters were sold in restaurants and through retail stores in these states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington D.C. They may also have been sold in other states.
If you ate raw oysters from that company and have been ill with the symptoms of Salmonella food poisoning, see your doctor because you may be part of this outbreak. If you froze these raw oysters for later use, do not eat them, since freezing does not destroy this pathogen.
