Egg Quality Assurance Programs and Egg-associated Salmonella Enteritidis Infections, United States

摘要

A Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis epidemic inthe United States began in 1978, spread to much of thecountry in the following decade, and began declining in1996. We examined correlations between annual changesin S. Enteritidis incidence in humans and introductions ofegg quality assurance programs (EQAPs) in some states toreduce S. Enteritidis contamination of eggs. BeforeEQAPs, 62% of the changes in S. Enteritidis incidencewere higher than the baseline for each state. After EQAPs,73%–84% of the changes were below the baseline.Regression analysis showed that a 1% increase in thenumber of eggs produced under an EQAP was associatedwith a 0.14% decrease in S. Enteritidis incidence (p < 0.05).These data indicate that EQAPs probably played a majorrole in reducing S. Enteritidis illness in these states