In July 2018 the CDC announced an investigation of infections with Salmonella Reading reported by 26 states. The outbreak was declared over on April 30, 2019. Three hundred fifty eight cases were reported by 42 states and the District of Columbia. One hundred thirty three cases were hospitalized. There was one death. Dates of illness onsets ranged from November 20, 2017 to March 31, 2019.

In interviews, ill people reported preparing or eating turkey products that were purchased raw, including ground turkey, turkey pieces, and whole turkey. Some of the ill people interviewed became sick after pets in their home ate raw ground turkey pet food. Several ill people interviewed worked in a facility that raises or processes turkeys, or lived with someone who did. The outbreak strain of Salmonella Reading was identified in samples from raw turkey pet food, raw turkey products, and live turkeys. Whole genome sequencing showed that the Salmonella strain from these samples is closely related genetically to the Salmonella strain isolated in ill people.

On November 15, 2018, Jennie-O Turkey Store Sales, LLC, in Barron, Wisconsin recalled approximately 91,388 pounds of raw ground turkey products. The recalled ground turkey was sold in one-pound packages labeled with establishment number "P-190". On December 21, 2018 Jennie-O Turkey Sales, LLC in Faribault, Minnesota recalled approximately 164,210 pounds of raw ground turkey products.

The Public Health of Canada also reported illnesses in this outbreak. In total, there were 130 confirmed cases of Salmonella Reading illness investigated in the following provinces and territories: British Columbia (33), Alberta (44), Saskatchewan (8), Manitoba (25), Ontario (9), Quebec (2), New Brunswick (1), Prince Edward Island (1), Northwest Territories (1), and Nunavut (6). Individuals were sick between April 2017 and January 2020. Thirty-nine individuals were hospitalized. One individual died.

Predicted antibiotic resistance based on whole genome sequencing (WGS) was determined for 487 isolates. There was no antibiotic resistance predicted for 173 (36%) isolates from 86 ill people and 87 food, animal, and environmental samples. The remaining 314 isolates (180 from ill people and 134 from food, animal, and environmental samples) contained genes for resistance or decreased susceptibility to some or all of the following antibiotics: ampicillin (52% of all 487 isolates), streptomycin (32%), sulfamethoxazole (31%), tetracycline (32%), kanamycin (3.4%), gentamicin (0.6%), nalidixic acid (0.4%), ciprofloxacin (0.4%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (0.4%), and fosfomycin (0.2%). Testing of 20 outbreak isolates using standard antibiotic susceptibility testing by CDC's National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) laboratory confirmed these results (fosfomycin and kanamycin were not tested by this method). Most (99%) of the human infections in this outbreak were susceptible to the antibiotics that are commonly used for treatment when susceptibility results are not available.