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Egg Turner

Recall expands to more than half a billion eggs due to salmonella outbreak

Recall expands to more than half a billion eggs due to salmonella outbreak

More than a half-billion eggs have so far  been recalled in the nationwide investigation of a salmonella outbreak. It is expected that this number will go beyond this present number,which may be more than a billion or more. This is a recorded number of eggs recalled.The outbreak has already sickened more than 1,000 people and the toll of illnesses is expected to increase.

Iowa's Hillandale Farms recently said that it was recalling more than 170 million eggs after laboratory tests confirmed salmonella. The company did not pass any comment  if its action was connected to the recall by Wright County Egg, another Iowa farm which also recalled 380 million eggs earlier lately. The latest recall counts the total number of potentially tainted eggs at about 550 million.

Nationwide, 90.4 billion eggs were produced last year, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

FDA spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy said that  the two recalls are related. The strain of salmonella bacteria causing the poisoning is the same in both cases, salmonella enteritidis.

Federal officials reported that  it's one of the largest egg recalls in recent history. Americans consume about 220 million eggs a day, based on industry estimates. Iowa is the leading egg producing state.

The eggs recalled recently were distributed under the brand names, Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms and West Creek. The new recall applies to eggs sold between April and August.

Hillandale also reported that the eggs were distributed to grocery distribution centers, retail groceries and food service companies that service or are located in fourteen states, including Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

A thoroughly cooking eggs can generally kill the bacteria. But health officials are recommending people throw away or return the recalled eggs.

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 is not surprised to hear about two recalls involving different egg companies, because in other outbreaks there have also been multiple sources".

Both the plants of these farms, 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", he further added.

CDC officials said that the number of illnesses related to the outbreak is expected to grow. That's because illnesses occurring after mid-July may not be reported yet, said Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

"Almost 2,000 illnesses from the strain of salmonella linked to both recalls were reported between May and July-2010, almost 1,300 more than usual", Braden said. No deaths have been reported. The CDC is continuing to receive information from state health departments as people report their illnesses.

Salmonella is the most common form of food poisoning from bacteria, and the strain involved in the outbreak is the most common kind of salmonella — accounting for roughly 20 percent of all such food poisonings.

Most people who get sick with salmonella enteriditis develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps between 12 and 72 hours after infection, according to health officials. The illness typically lasts between four and seven days.

But babies, elderly people and those with weakened immune systems are more likely to develop severe illness. Severe infections can be fatal if left untreated with antibiotics.

Symptoms of Salmonella Infection

An infectious dose of Salmonella is small, probably from 15 to 20 cells.  Typically, non-typhoidal Salmonella produces a self-limiting febrile gastrointestinal illness that is indistinguishable from that caused by other bacterial enteric pathogens. Dehydration is the principal clinical concern. The incubation period – the time between ingestion of Salmonella bacteria and the onset of illness – varies from six to 72 hours (Mayo Clinic, 2007, April 12; MMWR Recomm Rep, 2001).

Salmonella can cause three different kinds of illness:  gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, and bacteremia.

Symptoms of Salmonella gastroenteritis include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and/or vomiting. In mild cases diarrhea may be non-bloody, occur several times per day, and not be very voluminous; in severe cases it may be frequent, bloody and/or mucoid, and of high volume.

Fever generally occurs in the 100°F to 102°F (38°C to 39°C) range. Vomiting is less common than diarrhea. Headaches, myalgias (muscle pain), and arthralgias (joint pain) are often reported as well. Whereas the diarrhea typically lasts 24 to 72 hours, patients often report fatigue and other nonspecific symptoms lasting 7 days or longer.

Treatment for Salmonella Infection

Salmonella infections usually resolve in five to seven days, and many times require no treatment unless the patient becomes severely dehydrated or the infection spreads from the intestines. Persons with severe diarrhea may require re-hydration, often with intravenous fluids.

Treatment with antibiotics is not usually necessary; however, if the infection spreads from the intestines, or otherwise persists, the infection can be treated with ampicillin, gentamicin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, ceftriaxone, amoxicillin, or ciprofloxacin.  The length of treatment varies depending on the extent of a patient's illness, and can range from 14 days for enteric fever to six weeks for bactremia (Mayo Clinic, 2007, April 12).  Some Salmonella bacteria have become antibiotic-resistant.

Consult your healthcare provider if you believe you have become ill with salmonellosis

Spreading of this disease through  states and follow-up of the Federal Rules

Minnesota, a state with some of the best food-borne illness investigators in the country, has tied at least seven salmonella illnesses to the eggs. California has reported 266 illnesses since June, 2010and believes many are related to the eggs. Colorado saw 28 cases in June and July, about four times the usual number.

Other states have seen a jump in reports of the same type of salmonella. Spikes or clusters of suspicious cases have also been reported in Arizona, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

The CDC said investigations by 10 states since April have identified 26 cases where more than one person became ill. Preliminary information showed that Wright was the supplier in at least 15 of those.

Much of the investigation so far has been centered on restaurants in California, Colorado, Minnesota and North Carolina

The businessman who owns Wright County Egg, Jack DeCoster, has been cited for numerous health, safety and employment violations in the past. In 1997, DeCoster Egg Farms agreed to pay $2 million in fines to settle citations brought in 1996 for health and safety violations at DeCoster's farm in Turner, Maine.

Wright County Egg is already facing at least two lawsuits related to the recall. One is from food distributor Dutch Farms, which says the company, used unauthorized cartons to package and sell eggs under its brand name without its knowledge. The other is from a person who said they became ill after eating tainted eggs in a salad at a restaurant in Kenosha, Wis.

The outbreak also raised new questions about federal inspections of egg farms.

McGarry cited jurisdictional issues when she told reporters that the agency "does not have an inspectional history with this firm". " When asked who does have jurisdiction, McGarry pointed to the Agriculture Department. Yet USDA oversees voluntary grading inspections, but does not test for salmonella in shell eggs.

The FDA acknowledged in a statement lately that it has done some inspections on egg farms already linked to recalls, but did not say anything additional about whether the agency had inspected Wright County Egg.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the egg recall shows that stronger authority is needed on the farm.

"Jurisdiction over eggs has been scrambled between numerous government agencies for the last 20 years, resulting in enormous delays in addressing the hazard posed by salmonella," she said.

Legislation that would increase the frequency of FDA inspections has stalled in the Senate after the House passed it a year ago.

Consumer Concern

"Consumers holding off buying eggs because of health concerns will dampen demand and lower prices, more than any supply disruption," Otto, an extension economist at Iowa State University in said today in a telephone interview.

A dozen Grade A eggs cost $1.44 a dozen in July -2010, 35 percent less than they cost at their all-time peak in March 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The USDA expects prices this year to rise 2.5 to 3.5 percent, compared with 2 to 3 percent for food as a whole, it said last month.

Avoid Salmonella from Eggs: 4 Steps to Take Now

1. "Eggs should be cooked until both the white and the yolk are firm." In other words, solid. Avoid soft-boiled eggs, runny scrambled eggs, and eggs prepared sunny side up.

2. "Refrigerate unused or leftover egg-containing foods promptly." No, that doesn't mean you have to refrigerate every loaf of bread, cake, or muffin that's baked with eggs. But you should store the egg salad, casseroles, and quiches at once, or at the very least, don't leave them outside the fridge for more than two hours.

3. "Avoid eating raw eggs." That means no raw cake batter, cookie dough, or Rocky-style shakes. Got that?

4. "Avoid restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurized eggs." This may be a bit tough because it requires you to grill your waitress, who may have to go into the kitchen to ask the chef, who may be less than thrilled. But it's certainly important, since restaurants tend to be a prime source of food poisoning outbreaks. Ask if any sauces or dressings that traditionally use raw eggs, such as Hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing, use pasteurized eggs; these, like the egg whites you buy in a carton, are heated to temperatures high enough to kill salmonella. Otherwise avoid them. Be sure to also check the dessert menu: mousse, meringue, and tiramisu sometimes also contain uncooked eggs.

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witch way do i need to turn chicken eggs in a incubator?

i have chicken eggs and i don't have a automatic egg turner so i don't know witch way to turn them (i no that u have to turn them or the chick will get stuck to the egg) thx

You flip them to their other side 3-4 times a day. Most people put an x and an o on each side of the egg (with a pencil) and turn them to the other letter. This also helps you remember to flip every egg

Arduino Automated Egg Turner Experimentation