Health Officials Recall 380 Million Eggs Over Salmonella Outbreak

Much of the investigation so far has been centered on restaurants in California, Colorado and Minnesota where sick people ate. They are not necessarily breakfast places — it's possible some got sick from eating a salad dressing that had a raw egg in it, or eating soup with an undercooked egg dropped in, Braden said.

In one state, a cluster of illnesses seem to stem from meringue pie, health officials said.

Eggs from Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa, were linked to several illnesses in the three states. The eggs were distributed around the country and packaged under the names Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp.

The initial recall was issued last week. Eggs affected by the expanded recall were distributed to food wholesalers, distribution centers and food service companies in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Oregon, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

Not so fast.

There is a difference in real world epidemiology and laboratory experiments demonstrating or testing the ability/propensity of motile enterobacteria to penetrate an eggshell.

I read those articles.

Note the method employed in the third article:

“were immersed in SE or ST suspensions containing 10(3) or 10(6) CFU/ml at 25 degrees” That is essentially ‘filthy water’ — sewage if you will. If you defecated in a toilet, you might find E coli suspension less than 10 (6) CFU/ml prior to flushing.

How long do eggs in a production environment persist in an environment like that? That excerpt came from this article http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9708309

From the second article you posted — “eggs were inoculated with Salmonella by a temperature differential immersion method for 1 min. Eggs were then emptied of contents and filled with a selective medium that allowed visualization of Salmonella growth on the inside of the shell and membrane complex.” OK, it’s an interesting lab experiment that demonstrates motile enterobacteria CAN pass through a semipermeable structure. You have to ask yourself, as a scientist, Once inside the shell, do the bacteria thrive? Do they penetrate the three layers of the shell (via pores) only to NOT penetrate the inner and outer shell membranes? Do they, IN THE REAL WORLD, penetrate the shell in sufficient numbers to present a risk to humans? Just because you ingest a few live pathogens does not mean you will fall ill. I encourage you to be a good, thoughtful scientist here.

I forget which article it was, but one states “the data suggest”. THAT is weak science. That is perhaps a rational conclusion or inference from the data, but not something demonstrable in fact perhaps.

I’m in a hurry so my post is short, but .. . consider this from a recent Fox News story “A food safety expert at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said the source of the outbreak could be rodents, shipments of contaminated hens, or tainted feed. Microbiology professor Patrick McDonough said he was not surprised to hear about two recalls involving different egg companies, because in other outbreaks there have also been multiple sources.

Both plants could have a rodent problem, or both plants could have gotten hens that were already infected, or feed that was contaminated.

“You need biosecurity of the hen house, you want a rodent control program and you want to have hens put into that environment that are salmonella free,” McDonough said.

The salmonella bacteria is not passed from hen to hen, but usually from rodent droppings to chickens, he added. This strain of bacteria is found inside a chicken’s ovaries, and gets inside an egg.”

In this case, the contamination occurs within the reproductive system of the hen prior to shell formation. As I said in a prior post, if the bacteria are inside the eggshell, blame the hen.

Gotta run. Enjoying the discussion. Feel free to respond.

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