Iowa State University has released results from six years of environmental testing for Salmonella enteritidis bacterium in egg facilities. Researchers say that positive test results have dramatically decreased over that time, showing that the likelihood of a positive environmental test translating into contaminated eggs is extremely low. This, said Hongwei Xin, director of the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State, is a positive outcome of the industry implementing the federal egg safety rules that went into effect in July 2010. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires facilities housing more than 3,000 laying hens, comprising more than 98 percent of the nation’s flocks, to take environmental samples during various stages of production. Samples are taken from the surfaces of egg conveyor belts, floors and poultry manure to test for the presence of salmonella. When a sample does test positive, the FDA requires testing of shell eggs from that facility.
