THE HAGUE, Netherlands — October 2, 2012 — Smoked salmon tainted with salmonella bacteria has sickened hundreds of people in the Netherlands, sparking major recalls there and in the U.S., Dutch authorities said.
U.S. health authorities say they are also investigating possible effects from the salmon.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said the salmon has been traced to the Dutch company Foppen, which sells fish to many major Dutch supermarkets and to stores around the world, including the United States.
The institute said in a statement that around 200 people — and likely more — in the Netherlands and more than 100 people in the United States have been sickened by a strain of the bacteria called Salmonella Thompson.
Harald Wychgel, a spokesman for the Dutch public health institute, said the institute got its information on Americans becoming ill from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, a representative for the CDC said the agency was investigating and had not confirmed any illnesses.
Although other health agencies have access to its database of salmonella cases, the CDC said the Dutch agency is not among them. The CDC has a specific procedure for confirming an outbreak is from a specific cause, including interviews with those who become ill.
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