30 August 2010
Federal officials today released their initial inspection reports of the two Iowa companies linked to the nation's biggest egg recall, which reveal multiple biosecurity breaches, such as rodent infestation, wild birds in poultry barns, and instances in which chicken manure could have contaminated egg-laying areas.
The inspections, which represent the nation's first under the new shell egg safety rules, revealed that both companies failed to follow and implement their written Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) prevention programs.
The Egg Rule establishes very specific standards that egg producers must meet to prevent contamination of eggs with Salmonella and Enteritidis. It is their legal duty to meet these standards to implement these preventive measures. The FDA planning to inspect in the coming 15 months all of the egg production facilities that are subject to the rule. About 600 of these facilities - these are the ones that produce anywhere from 50,000 laying hens - or, involve 50,000 laying hens or more and they account for 80% of egg production.
The national SE outbreak has sickened nearly 1,500 people so far and led to the recall of about 550 million eggs.
Investigators were at Wright County Egg facilities (also known as Quality Egg- Quality Egg LLC is the legal name of the business in Iowa, which includes a number of layer farms, pullet farms and a feed mill) from Aug 12 through Aug 30 exploring conditions at five sites and at the company's feed mill operation. Among the observations noted by the FDA investigators at Wright County were the following; the firm failed to fully implement and follow procedures in its Salmonella Enteritidis Prevention Plan. Some examples of that are that the firm failed to prevent stray poultry, wild birds, cats and other animals from entering poultry houses. Outside access doors to manure pits were pushed out by the weight of manure which was piled in some cases four to eight feet high thereby providing openings into the poultry houses for wildlife or other animals. Further, animals including rodents were able to enter the poultry houses due to structural damage that included things like missing siding and air vents or gaps at the bottoms of doors. The firm failed to eliminate birds from laying houses and to control rodents or flies. The investigators observed bird nests and birds in one poultry house, live rodents in at least one poultry house at several plants, and live and dead flies that were too numerous to count in many poultry houses at certain plants. The live flies were observed on and around egg belts, feed shell eggs and walkways to different sections of the egg laying areas. There were live flies, crushed under foot when employees walked in the aisles at work and there were live and dead maggots observed in the manure pit at one plant.
At Wright County Egg's feed mill (supplies feed for Wright County Egg Division and also to Hillandale Farms), evidence of wild birds was noted in the milling, mixing system, and storage areas. Raw-ingredient bins had holes open to the environment, with evidence of pigeons near the openings.
Meanwhile, the inspection at three Hillandale Farms.