Salmonella outbreak traced to North Carolina leads to largest egg recall in nearly a decade

“Some of the reported illnesses were linked to grocery stores where Rose Acre Farms does not supply eggs at all,” the company wrote in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “Nevertheless, the company conducted the recall out of an abundance of caution to ensure that we are doing everything possible to preserve the trust we have built with consumers and their families for many decades.”

Dr. Benjamin Chapman, an associate professor who specializes in food safety at North Carolina State University, says the actual number of people sickened in an outbreak is around 38 for every one illness that’s reported and confirmed. “There’s a lot of underreporting,” he says. That means the contaminated eggs have likely sickened hundreds of people more than the 23 we know about.

Chickens typically pick up salmonella from wild birds or mice, and they can carry it without showing any symptoms. “It grows really well at human body temperatures and animal body temperatures,” Chapman says. “It also stays really stable and dormant when dried.” According to Cornell University, this particular strain is known to thrive in cattle, chickens, and turtles.

Salmonella can contaminate eggs in a couple of different ways, and Chapman says it’s difficult to know what, exactly, caused this outbreak. Chickens can pass the bacteria to one another through contact with fecal matter, and an infected chicken can pass bacteria into her egg before its shell forms. An egg can also pick up salmonella bacteria if it touches fecal matter after it’s been laid.

The last time we saw a Salmonella Braenderup outbreak in the United States was in 2014, when contaminated peanut butter sickened six people, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The strain’s relative rarity made it easier for epidemiologists to connect the confirmed cases and locate the source at the farm in Hyde County, North Carolina.

The swift identification might mean this outbreak will ultimately sicken fewer people than the last egg-related outbreak of its size, which included a recall of 550 million eggs and resulted in 1,939 confirmed illnesses. “That outbreak was so much drastically larger,” Chapman says. “This one, from a public health standpoint, being able to pinpoint [the farm] slows the duration of exposure. We’re not seeing a tenfold or twentyfold increase compared to 2010. That’s a good thing.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises anyone who purchased the recalled eggs to throw them away. The CDC investigation is ongoing.