Sampling and detection of Salmonella in eggs

Abstract

The detection of Salmonella in the edible internal contents of eggshells provides the most incontrovertible and epidemiologically relevant evidence that laying flocks might pose a threat to consumers. Accordingly, dependable tests for Salmonella in eggs remain essential for achieving public health objectives. Research has helped explain how eggs are contaminated by Salmonella, where the pathogen is deposited and how it potentially multiplies during egg storage, and what types of assays are best able to find contaminants. However, effective utilization of egg testing results is constrained by the methodological challenges of rapidly detecting contamination, which occurs at extremely low cell numbers and prevalence.