Divergent geography of Salmonella Wangata and Salmonella Typhimurium epidemiology in New South Wales, Australia

• Published in: One health 2019-06, Vol.7, p.100092, Article 100092
• Main Authors: Simpson, Kelly M.J., Mor, Siobhan M., Ward, Michael P., Walsh, Michael G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Environmental Salmonella; Landscape epidemiology; Research Paper; Salmonella; Spatial analysis; Zoonosis
• ISSN: 2352-7714; 2352-7714
• DOI: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2019.100092

Salmonella enterica serovar Wangata is an important cause of salmonellosis in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Standard surveillance has not identified a common food source and cases have been attributed to an unknown environmental or wildlife reservoir. Investigation of the spatial distribution of cases may provide valuable insights into local risk factors for infection and the potential role of the environment and wildlife. Using conditional autoregressive analysis, we explored the association between laboratory-confirmed cases of S. Wangata reported to the New South Wales Department of Health and human socio-demographic, climate, land cover and wildlife features. For comparison, a model was also fitted to investigate the association of cases of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, an established foodborne serotype, with the same features. To determine if cases of S. Wangata were associated with potential wildlife reservoir species, additional variables were included in the S. Wangata model that indicated areas of high suitability for each species. We found that cases of S. Wangata were associated with warmer temperatures, proximity to wetlands and amphibian species richness. In contrast, cases of S. Typhimurium were associated with human demographic features (proportion of the population comprising children