FoodCORE Center: Oregon

“As students, the partnership between FoodCORE and the Oregon Public Health Division has given us the opportunity to gain valuable real-world experience working at a state public health agency.  It is also rewarding to see that our work through FoodCORE provides Oregon with important capacity for surveillance, investigation, and response to foodborne outbreaks.”

Ian Pray, FoodCORE MPH Student Team

“FoodCORE is key to our ability to solve outbreaks: ferreting out precisely what exposures the cases had in common and finding the food that spread the illness. FoodCORE pays the people who do this work and helps to train the work force of the future.”

Paul Cieslak, Medical Director

Since becoming a FoodCORE center in August of 2014, the Oregon FoodCORE program has hired students to interview people infected with Salmonella or Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli infections. The students compare exposures from related cases to identify commonalities and examine their hypotheses with statistical tests. Findings can lead to food tracebacks or collection of suspected foods for testing.

Since receiving FoodCORE funding Oregon has investigated several outbreaks and clusters. In 2015, we investigated 292 outbreaks and 42 PFGE clusters that resulted in about 4,500 cases of illness. Of the outbreaks linked to food, the majority were caused by norovirus (44%) or Salmonella (30%). Shiga toxin- producing E. coli (STEC), Listeria, Yersinia, Sapovirus, and scombroid poisoning each caused one or two outbreaks; 4% of outbreaks were caused by unknown pathogens. An environmental health assessment was performed in 94% of foodborne outbreaks that occurred at a licensed facility, and laboratory specimens were collected in 96% of foodborne outbreaks.