Salmonella Miami

Background: Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Miami (antigenic formula 1,9,12:a:1,5) is a serovar of the O:9 (D₁) serogroup. Serovars Miami and Sendai share the same antigenic formula. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Salmonella at the Pasteur Institute, serovar Sendai, which is human-adapted, is auxotrophic and cannot grow on a minimal glucose medium or Simmons's citrate agar. In contrast, serovar Miami, being ubiquitous, is prototrophic and thrives on such minimal media. Fukumi et al. mentioned that most serovar Miami strains were isolated from cases of acute gastroenteritis or similar conditions.

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

Genetic characteristics: Serovar Miami has been found to be polyphyletic with seven lineages identified. Feng et al. revealed that, in terms of genetic content, serovar Miami showed a closer relationship to serovar Panama than to serovar Sendai. In addition, serovar Miami was found to have two CRISPR loci, neither of which matched those found in serovar Sendai or Paratyphi A. However, the nucleotide sequence of Miami’s fliC gene was almost identical to Sendai’s. The differing phylogenetic patterns observed in fliC, fliB, and fliD suggest that serovar Miami likely acquired fliC through recombination.

Animal reservoir: Serovar Miami was found to be host-generalist. For example, this serovar was previously found in opossums (Marmosa mitis) from Trinidad and Grenada. According to the metadata from NCBI PD, this serovar was isolated from other wild animals such as southern toad (Anaxyrus terrestris), snake (Boa constrictor), American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), American white ibis (Eudocimus albus).

Geographical distribution: Serovar Miami has been reported occasionally worldwide, but primarily in US. Among a total of 1,446 serovar Miami isolates available in NCBI PD (accessed 04/23/2025), 1,234 were collected in US.

Human outbreaks:

Year	Location	Associated source	Number of cases
2021	US: multistate	Unknown	At least 65
2020	France	Chilled vacuum-packed cooked sliced pork shoulder from Spain	Not reported

Animal outbreaks:

Year	Location	Breed	Number of cases
2014	India	Sus domesticus	12 including 2 severely diarrhoeic piglets

Border rejections: Multiple border rejections associated with serovar Miami have been reported. They were all linked to black pepper imported from Brazil into Germany.

Year	Exporting country	Importing country	Associated source	Product category
2021	Brazil	Germany	Black pepper¹	Herbs and spices
2021	Brazil	Germany	Black pepper²	Herbs and spices
2021	Brazil	Germany	Black pepper³	Herbs and spices
2020	Brazil	Germany	Black pepper⁴	Herbs and spices

¹ Salmonella Sandiego and Miami were found.

² Salmonella Matadi, Javiana, Miami, and Saintpaul were found.

³ Salmonella Saintpaul, Salmonella Rubislaw, Salmonella Javiana, Salmonella Miami, Salmonella Abaetetuba

⁴ Salmonella Miami and Oranienburg were found.

Recalls: There have been no recent recalls linked to this serovar.

Relevant links:

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Salmonella Miami