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Egg Salmonella Outbreak Grows; Recall Expands

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

Many more illnesses are being blamed on a nationwide Salmonella outbreak and California's NuCal Foods is expanding a shell egg recall to include five additional brand names not named by Iowa's Wright County Egg, which recalled over a dozen brands of eggs late last week.
The expanded recall action came at the same time as Los Angeles County health officials said at least 266 Californians were infected with egg-related Salmonella.  That's a big jump from the seven cases Minnesota linked to the national shell egg outbreak yesterday.
NuCal Foods recalled specific Julian dates of shell eggs produced by Wright County Egg and packaged by NuCal Foods because of the potential for Salmonella contamination.
NuCal Foods, based in Ripon, CA, gets its eggs from Iowa's Wright County Egg, based in Galt.  NuCal then packages eggs into 5-dozen over-wrapped retail units for distribution to food wholesalers and retailers in both California and Nevada.  The product descriptions for the brands being added to the recall because of the nationwide Salmonella outbreak include:
-Bayview Large 5dz, UPC 7-17544-30172-1, Plant Number P-1686, Julian Dates 142-149
-Mountain Dairy Medium 5dz, UPC 0-11110-89969-9, Plant Number P-1951, Julian Dates 193-208
-Nulaid Medium 5dz, UPC 0-71230-02140-0, Plant Number P-1091, Julian Dates 167-174
-Nulaid Medium 5dz, UPC 0-71230-02140-0, Plant Number P-1951, Julian Dates 195-210
-Sun Valley Medium 5dz, UPC 6-48065-11432-6, Plant Number P-1951, Julian Dates 195-209
Wright previously recalled the following brands: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms, and Kemps. 
Wright distributed those egg brands to food wholesalers, distribution centers, and food service companies in California, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.  These companies--like NuCal--then distributed the eggs around the nation.
Officials have already confirmed Salmonella enteritidis illnesses related to shell eggs from Wright County Egg, and trackback investigations are ongoing.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta says since May there has been a four-fold increase in the number of Salmonella Enteritidis infections with the same pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern, or genetic fingerprint, reported by states through PulseNet, the national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the agency.
According to the CDC, "Approximately 200 isolates were uploaded to PulseNet on a weekly basis during late June and early July compared to an expected ~50 uploads a week on average during this same period in the previous 5 years."
It is estimated that for every confirmed case of Salmonella, there are approximately 38 unconfirmed cases. Salmonella Enteriditis is one of the most common strains of Salmonella circulating, and is often associated with eggs. 

Full post as published by Food Safety News on August 18, 2010 (boomark / email).