Word of the Week: how a bacterium unrelated to fish got its name 'salmonella'

Agar plates pinch salmonella cultures fresh for testing successful nan Medical Microbiology astatine nan Houston Health and Human Services Department connected June 18, 2015, successful Houston. Mayra Beltran/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Mayra Beltran/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Its 1 of nan astir communal forms of nutrient poisoning successful nan world.

Salmonella — a stubborn bacterium known for its dispersed done contaminated food, h2o and moreover pets — is responsible for astir 1.35 cardinal infections successful nan U.S. each year. It leads nan state successful nutrient poisoning-related hospitalizations and deaths, according to nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most recently, a salmonella outbreak tied to a California ovum producer sickened astatine slightest 79 people, arsenic of June 6. It besides triggered a callback of 1.7 cardinal twelve eggs that whitethorn person been contaminated.

Despite its fishy name, salmonella has nary relationship to nan underwater animal salmon. Rather, nan communicative down nan bacterium is 1 of disputed in installments betwixt 2 American researchers. It's besides linked to 1 of nan astir celebrated cases successful aesculapian history astir nan equilibrium betwixt nationalist wellness and individual freedoms.

Here's a look astatine nan origins down nan bacterium's name.

Where did 'salmonella' travel from?

The bacterium is named aft Daniel E. Salmon, an American veterinary pathologist from nan precocious 19th century, according to nan Food and Drug Administration.

While nan bacterium bears his name, location is immoderate statement complete really overmuch in installments Salmon should person complete his laboratory adjunct Theobald Smith, who galore judge was nan 1 to isolate nan microorganism from sick pigs successful 1885. At nan time, nan bacterium was referred to arsenic "hog-cholera bacillus" because it was identified while researching nan origin down hog cholera.

Salmon and Smith clashed complete credit respective times, according to a curriculum vitae connected Salmon. Still, their collaboration led to awesome advances successful nationalist health, including investigation that would thief pave nan measurement for nan accumulation of nan polio vaccine.

In 1900, French-Argentinian bacteriologist Joseph Leon Lignières who was studying nan pathogen projected that nan type of bacterium beryllium named "salmonella" successful grant of Salmon.

" It's very communal for type of each kinds and germs and fundamentally thing successful nan technological world to beryllium named aft its discoverers," said Jess Zafarris, an writer of etymology books who writes astir connection origins.

Zafarris added that it was besides communal to adhd nan Latin suffix "ella" erstwhile naming germs and algae. For example, "Chlorella" combines nan Greek connection "chloro," meaning green, pinch nan suffix to picture greenish algae. Similarly, nan bacterium "leigionella" was named aft an outbreak that occurred astatine an American Legion convention.

Salmonella's quality complete nan hundreds of years and 'Typhoid Mary'

While salmonella's sanction was coined successful nan 20th century, grounds suggests nan bacterium itself has been infecting humans for centuries.

In 2017, scientists wished that a deadly shape of nan bacteria whitethorn person played a domiciled successful nan illness of nan Aztec Empire complete 500 years ago. A twelvemonth later, researchers detected a strain of salmonella successful an 800-year-old quality skeleton from Norway.

One of nan earliest and astir celebrated cases of a salmonella outbreak began aft a female named Mary Mallon moved to nan U.S. from Ireland successful nan 1880s. Mallon was an asymptomatic bearer of salmonella typhi, which causes typhoid fever, and she unknowingly infected respective families while moving arsenic a navigator for a able New York banker.

George Soper, a sanitary expert, investigated nan cases, akin to what we cognize coming arsenic interaction tracing. It led him to judge that Mallon was an asymptomatic bearer of typhoid fever. To beryllium sure, astatine 1 point, Soper showed up to Mallon's activity spot and asked for samples of her blood, urine and stool, according to Susan Campbell Bartoletti, writer of "Terrible Typhoid Mary."

"She grabs a carving fork and she swears and she attacks him and he fled," Bartoletti told NPR successful 2020.

By 1907, immoderate 3,000 New Yorkers had been infected pinch salmonella typhi and Mallon was considered nan cardinal source.

An article connected Mary Mallon wherever she was infamously branded "Typhoid Mary." She was nan first patient personification identified arsenic a bearer of typhoid fever successful nan United States. Library of Congress hide caption

toggle caption

Library of Congress

Soper yet convinced metropolis officials that Mallon was a nationalist wellness threat, starring to her forced quarantine for complete 2 years. After her release, caller infections were traced backmost to Mallon, and she was permanently quarantined until her decease complete 20 years later.

The lawsuit of Mallon and Soper remains a powerful illustration successful aesculapian history of nan complexities betwixt protecting nationalist wellness and preserving individual freedoms.

"When George Soper appeared successful that room and accused her, she was insulted. And she didn't want to suffer her work, her only intends of employment," Bartoletti said. "Maybe he needed to explicate it to her differently. Maybe he shouldn't person gone successful expecting her to understand correct distant what he was talking about. It frightened her."

Why is it important today?

More than a period aft nan awesome outbreak successful New York, salmonella remains 1 of nan starring causes of foodborne unwellness — 2nd only to norovirus, according to nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly a 4th of salmonella infections are caused by eating contaminated chickenhearted and turkey. But location person besides been outbreaks linked to cucumbers, cantaloupe, pet turtles and astir recently, eggs.

These outbreaks travel amid monolithic cuts by nan Trump management to nan 3 national agencies responsible for nutrient information oversight. That includes nan Food and Drug Administration, nan Department of Agriculture, and nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Our national nutrient information strategy is teetering connected nan brink of a collapse," Sarah Sorscher, a argumentation master astatine nan Center for Science successful nan Public Interest, told NPR past month.

In statements to NPR, nan FDA and USDA said past period that nan caller changes will not change their committedness to nutrient safety. The CDC besides antecedently said it "remains prepared to respond to, and activity pinch states connected those outbreaks."