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Background: Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Kentucky (antigenic formula 8,20:i:z6z₆) is a serovar of the O:8 (C₂-C₃) serogroup. In North America, serovar Kentucky remained the number one most prevalent serovar in poultry products. This serovar is commonly found in food animals in the U.S. (Chickenschickens, turkeys and cowscattle), but but rarely is reported in human cases. It is the most common serovar identified in non-clinical non-human sources, according to CDC, 2011. However, in Europe, serovar Kentucky is found in approx. 1% of the human cases (top 10).   A number of human cases have been reported in Europe in travelers from Asia and Africa. However, there are limited outbreaks with epidemiological investigation and clear source identification have been reported.

In the U.S., it is commonly found in animals (specifically cattle and poultry) and in meat. In Europe, Asia and Africa, this serovar is also regularly isolated from humans with symptoms consistent with salmonellosis.

NCBI PD link for serovar Kentucky: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pathogens/isolates/#(taxgroup_name:%22Salmonella%20enterica%22)%20AND%20computed_types:(%22serotype=Kentucky%22)

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Kentucky ST 152 was found to be predominant in US chickens and appears to show attenuated human virulence. Of 5151 genomes Richards et al. analyzed, 90.3 % were isolated from broilers, while 5.9 %, 3.0% were from humans and cattle, respectively. Notably, two serovar Kentucky-II isolates demonstrated an average 8.6-fold higher replication rate in macrophages compared to Kentucky-I isolates. Phylogenetic and pan-genomic analyses that included completely sequenced S. Kentucky and other Salmonella serovars concluded that S. Kentucky (i) belongs to clade A, according to den Bakker et al. (2011) classification, (ii) appears to have several evolutionary origin, and (iii) contains 127 gene families unique to this serovar. Chen et al. found that serovar Kentucky is a polyphyletic serovar with two lineages identified (Kentucky A and Kentucky B) and two stand-alone singletons that do not cluster with any other Salmonella Kentucky isolates. While Kentucky A is is associated with chicken (the majority of isolates are from the US), Kentucky B (the majority of isolates are from the UK) is associated with cattle. There are two clonal subclades identified in the Kentucky B Clade 2. 

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Relevant links:

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6606869/
2. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.695368/full
3. https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/pdf/salmonella-atlas-508c.pdf
4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996911002869
5. https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5500
6. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2747853/
7. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1797678/
8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21813512/
9. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/6/12-1351_article#r3
10. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2813%2970124-5/abstract
11. https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/aac.00732-12
12. https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.001089#tab2
13. https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-12-425
14. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3175032/
15. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mmbr.00015-13
16. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01913-24?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
17. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21813512/
18. https://archive.cdc.gov/#/details?url=https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/muenchen-02-16/index.html
19. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33269723/
20. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/591197
21. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/607336
22. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/416870
23. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/494162http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/AY463797