We wish to address corrections to specific data presented in our previously published article, “Developing a risk management framework to improve public health outcomes by enumerating and serotyping Salmonella in ground turkey” (Sampedro F, Garcés-Vega F, Strickland AJ and Hedberg CW (2024) Epidemiology and Infection 152, e12. doi:10.1017/S0950268823002029).

In the Input Data section of the Methodology, the stated minimum temperature for medium level of doneness should be 62.2°C.

In the Input Data section of the Methodology, a statement should be added: The potential Salmonella growth during temperature abuse was not included in the model.

In the Methodology, a statement should be added: A convergence criterion was applied to the Monte Carlo simulation, defined as a change of <1% in the mean number of illnesses for both low- and high-virulence serotypes at the 95% confidence level.

In the Public Health Impact of Risk Management Strategies section of the Results, there are corrections to the reported prevalence values and percentage of diverted lots associated with certain risk management strategies:

Removing lots with a microbial load >10 MPN/g reduced the overall Salmonella prevalence to 15.3% and mean concentration to −1.4 (−3.2 to 0.3, 95% CI) log MPN/g. Through the removal of these lots above the 10 MPN/g threshold, the model predicted 9,681 illnesses that would lead to 337 reported cases, which is a reduction of 38.5% in the mean number of illnesses relative to the baseline model (Table 4). Removing lots exceeding 1 MPN/g reduced the overall prevalence to 14.3% and the mean concentration to −1.5 (−3.1 to 0.05, 95% CI) log MPN/g, leading to a reduction of 72.1% of the mean number of illnesses. Applying a more stringent microbial threshold, as the absence of Salmonella in 25 g, the model predicts that the prevalence of contamination would be reduced to 10.3% and the mean concentration to −1.9 (−2.8 to −1.0, 95% CI) log MPN/g, resulting in a net reduction of 96.6% of illnesses.

The revised Table 4 will be as follows:

Table 4.

Public health impact of removing ground turkey lots exceeding three Salmonella concentration thresholds

Table 4. Long description

The table consists of four columns and five rows including the header.

Column headers from left to right are:

1. Output variable.

2. Greater than 10 M P N forward slash g.

3. Greater than 1 M P N forward slash g.

4. Greater than or equal to 1 M P N forward slash 25 g.

Row 1: Total number of illnesses.

- Greater than 10 M P N forward slash g: 9,681 (6,942 to 12,340).

- Greater than 1 M P N forward slash g: 4,467 (3,243 to 5,286).

- Greater than or equal to 1 M P N forward slash 25 g: 445 (435 to 473).

Row 2: Total number of reported illnesses.

- Greater than 10 M P N forward slash g: 337 (237 to 421).

- Greater than 1 M P N forward slash g: 152 (111 to 180).

- Greater than or equal to 1 M P N forward slash 25 g: 17 (15 to 19).

Row 3: Percentage reduction in illnesses relative to the baseline model.

- Greater than 10 M P N forward slash g: 38.5 percent (23.1 to 56.7).

- Greater than 1 M P N forward slash g: 72.1 percent (67.0 to 79.8).

- Greater than or equal to 1 M P N forward slash 25 g: 96.6 percent (96.1 to 97.3).

Row 4: Percentage of production lots diverted.

- Greater than 10 M P N forward slash g: 0.5 percent (0.2 to 0.7).

- Greater than 1 M P N forward slash g: 1.5 percent (1.2 to 1.9).

- Greater than or equal to 1 M P N forward slash 25 g: 5.5 percent (5.5 to 5.6).

Values are means, with 95% confidence intervals in parentheses. MPN, most probable number.

We appreciate the opportunity to address these clarifications.