WITH more than half a billion eggs recalled, the US Food and Drug Administration is investigating the source of the country鈥檚 biggest ever outbreak of salmonella poisoning.
A quadrupling in the usual number of cases of infection with a strain of Salmonella enteritidis in May in Atlanta to a possible outbreak. The trail led the CDC and FDA to two Iowa farms now under investigation: Wright County Egg and Hillandale. Although the CDC initially linked around 2000 cases of food poisoning with the outbreak, it is thought 40 times as many people may have been infected.
Now the race is on to explain how it happened. 鈥淭he FDA is evaluating potential causes of contamination in the farms associated with the outbreak,鈥� says Margaret Hamburg, the FDA鈥檚 commissioner. 鈥淚n general, the likely sources of salmonella outbreaks include rodents, shipments of contaminated chicks or hens, lack of biosecurity controls and tainted seed.鈥�
Advertisement
Since the Minnesota facility that supplies chicks to the Iowa farms has been certified salmonella-free since 1989, the FDA鈥檚 focus has shifted to the pullet houses where chicks are reared to become laying hens.
In the UK, salmonella since 1998, when vaccination of laying hens against S. enteritidis was introduced. The FDA supports voluntary but not mandatory vaccination in the US.
