The Salmonella conundrum for egg producers continues

Out of 1,355 FDA inspections of U.S. registered egg farms, only 10 farms received warning letters from the agency, John Sheehan, director, division of dairy, egg and meat safety, CFSAN, FDA, reported.  “We think that this is a very good result,” he said.Sheehan said environmental samples were taken by FDA inspectors on 235 egg farms and only 3 percent of these were found to be positive for Salmonella enteridis. He explained that samples were taken on “targeted inspections.” So this result represents significant improvement when compared with prior published incidence rates of 8 to 9 percent gathered prior to the Egg Safety Rule’s implementation in 2010. Unfortunately, just as the reduced percentage of Salmonella-positive broiler carcasses after chilling hasn’t seemed to reduce human cases of Salmonellosis, neither has the reduction in SE contamination on layer farms.