Livingstone was the third most common salmonella serotype isolated fro
m cases of human salmonellosis in the Tayside region of Scotland in 19
89-1991; latterly, it spread to Grampian region. The significant upsur
ge of Livingstone in these two Scottish regions was not matched by sim
ilar increases in its frequency of isolation from human cases of salmo
nellosis in other regions of Scotland or elsewhere in the UK. Although
Salmonella Livingstone is usually associated in the UK with incidents
of infection among poultry flocks, our detailed investigations found
no clear evidence that poultry, eggs or poultry-related products were
responsible for this outbreak. Most cases occurred in the summer month
s from July to September and many of the patients required hospital tr
eatment. Other than one outbreak among geriatric patients in a long-st
ay hospital in north Tayside, most of the cases were sporadic. The ext
ent of the outbreak, covering 3 years, was recognised mainly because L
ivingstone was previously an uncommon serotype in Tayside. There were
few Livingstone isolations from non-human sources in Scotland in these
same years. Possible sources of infection and predisposing factors am
ong patients are discussed. Livingstone was not isolated in Scotland i
n 1992.