SOLRR

Investigations from federal health officials said contaminated chicken feed is the likely culprit behind the salmonella outbreak in eggs from two major US egg producers.  The outbreak has caused salmonella symptoms and illness in over 1,700 people.

“We don’t know if the feeding ingredients came to the facility contaminated or if the feed got contaminated at the facility,” said Jeff Farrar, the associate commissioner for food protection at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The contaminated chicken feed has only been distributed to two Iowa farms, Hillandale Farms and Wright County Egg, and has not been sent to other farms across the country.

The salmonella outbreak has promoted a recall on over 500 million eggs from the two farms.  The effected eggs were distributed under dozens of brand names and to 22 states.

“We are looking at all possibilities here of how contamination could have gone into the feed or on to the farm,” Farrar said.

“This contamination can come in through numerous routes — including rodents, shared equipment, workers — so we are looking into all those possibilities in our investigation.”