Clarifying the Evidence Linking Hepatitis A Outbreaks to Imported Strawberries.

The available epidemiologic, microbiological, and traceback evidence does not conclusively establish that the implicated strawberries were contaminated with HAV or that contamination occurred at a farm in Mexico. HAV RNA was not detected in the tested strawberry samples, and the environmental findings did not provide sequence confirmation. Therefore, the country of origin should be distinguished from the actual location of contamination.