Eggs, Salmonella contamination

Edwina Currie Fiasco (1988, GB). Junior Health Minister admitted most of UK s eggs were contaminated with Salmonella... 

FDA was also very slow in responding to the problem of Salmonella-contaminated eggs. In 1999, FDA announced an Egg Safety Action Plan, and it spent the next five years drafting proposed regulations. After FDA completed the final rule in July 2008, OIRA held it up for the remainder of the Bush Administration. One consequence of the unwarranted delay was a massive Salmonella outbreak in August 2010 that sickened more than 1,200 people and resulted in a recall of more than one-half billion eggs. ... 

More recently, a range of other quality and safety issues have been recognised by consumers and now influence poultry meat and egg buying patterns and behaviour. Most importantly this includes (i) the routine use of antibiotics as growth promoters and curative medicines and the potential for development of transferable antibiotic resistance, (ii) risk associated with enteric pathogen (e.g. Salmonella and Campylobacter) and toxin (e.g. dioxin) contaminants of poultry products, (iii) the environmental impact of poultry production and (iv) the sensory and nutritional quality of eggs and poultry meat (Menzi et al., 1997 Hamm et al., 2002 Rodenburg et al., 2004 Horsted et al., 2005). 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the USA has estimated that Campylobacter and Salmonella are the top two bacterial foodbome pathogens as they are responsible for a total of 2 and 1.3 million foodbome infections every year (Mead et al., 1999). Most of the cases of infection with Campylobacter and Salmonella appear to be due to eggs and poultry, but a significant number of cases are related to beef products (CDC, 2005 Jay, 2000). EHEC does not cause as many infections as the top two pathogens (approximately 100,000 in the USA), but EHEC is frequently linked to outbreaks of diarrhea caused by the consumption of contaminated ground beef (Mead et al., 1999, Rangel et al., 2005). Infections caused by EHEC are the major microbial public health concern related to ruminant food products. 

Salmonella rods are present on the surfaces of eggs and may penetrate into eggs via shell pores. They are also found in poultry and milk, and may contaminate meat during jointing. Foodborne toxicoinfections caused by Salmonella rods, but not involved in typhus or paratyphus, are named salmonellosis. In 2001 in Poland, the morbidity rate reached 51.2 per 100,000 (19,788 cases) (Gonera,... 

Other examples of accidental contamination demonstrate the potential size of outbreaks from contamination closer to the source of production or distribution. In 1993, an estimated 403,000 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, residents developed diarrhea due to Cryptosporidia contamination of the municipal drinking water system. Four thousand people required hospitalization and authorities attributed cryptosporidio-sis as the underlying or contributing cause of death for 54 Milwaukee residents (68). In 1994, cross contamination of ice cream premix transported in a truck that had carried liquid, unpasteurized eggs affected 224,000 individuals in 41 states with Salmonella enteritidis (67). In 2000, E. coli 0157 H7 contamination of the Walkerton, Ontario municipal water supply affected over 2,000 residents and caused seven deaths (68). 

Transmission of Salmonellosis occurs in the majority of cases by contaminated food. The most common sources are poultry, eggs, fruits, vegetables, dairy products and shellfish. Peanut butter has been also implicated in an outbreak of salmonellosis in the USA and powdered infant formula in two outbreaks with Salmonella enteric in infants in France. 

Salmonella infections have increased recently as common gastroenteritis disease. The clinical manifestation are diarrhoea, fever, abdominal cramps, tenesmus, headache, myalgia and occasionally nausea and vomiting. The contamination of foods can affect many people in USA in 1985 contaminated milk caused a disease in 170,000 person and in China in 1991 224,000 people are affected through a contaminated ice cream. The main reservoir of Salmonella are poultry, eggs and egg products. Serological test may be useful for the diagnosis. 

It is concluded that the modified 1-2 TEST system can be viewed as a reliable rapid screening method for the detection of Salmonella in a variety of naturally contaminated animal feeds, feed ingredients, frozen egg products and environmental samples. 

The major organisms of concern in eggs are Salmonella spp. The level of contamination depends on several factors, such as age, porosity of the shell, the... 

Salmonellae can exist for long periods outside their host, and maybe found, for example, in sewage and surface water. Humans may become infected by consuming contaminated water or food, especially animal products, such as eggs, meat, and milk, or vegetables that have been fertilized with contaminated manure. The bacteria can also be transmitted from human or animal carriers by unhygienic food preparation. Various species of Salmonella cause gastroenteritis and septicaemia typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever are caused by S. typhi and S. paratyphi, respectively. 

Lower dose treatments, often referred to as pasteurization doses, have shown much more promise. In particular, doses sufficiently low to cause no significant odor and flavor change in the food are adequate to eliminate the hazards to health associated with salmonella and nematode contamination. For example, the irradiation of frozen meat, whole egg and egg products used in baking, and high protein animal foodstuffs is under active investigation as a means of elimination of salmonellae. At the moment, however, this cannot be classed as an industrial application, since only a few tons have been irradiated in pilot experiments.The shelf-life of white fish kept on ice has been considerably extended by small doses of radiation, and in the United States a full-scale plant for the irradiation of fish has recently been completed. Fish remain an underused protein resource available for the underdeveloped countries, and a big expansion in fish consumption is likely if the world s protein requirements are to be met. Inevitably, the development of fish resources must go hand in hand with satisfactory transportation in view of the relatively limited shelf-life... 

Salmonella Genus of bacteria that can contaminate eggs, causing serious illness to humans who consume the eggs. 

In the early 1990s, seientists discovered that more than half of the poultry that Americans consumed was contaminated by Salmonella Enteriditis, a virulent bacterium that causes diarrhea, fever, intestinal cramping, and more serious complications in immune compromised patients. Worse, as modern egg production facilities forced huge flocks of hens into close quarters, their ovaries became infected with Salmonella. As a result, the bacterium became an invisible contaminant of millions of eggs. Scientists estimated that one in ten thousand eggs was infected. Health experts estimated that 2-4 million cases of Salmonella poisoning occurred annually, resulting in around 2,000 deaths. ... 

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