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Filth, rodents found at egg farms

Published 10:20 pm Monday, August 30, 2010

By McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Federal officials investigating conditions at the two Iowa mega-farms whose products have been at the center of the recent egg recall found filthy conditions, including chickens and rodents crawling up massive manure piles and flies and maggots “too numerous to count.”

Water used to wash eggs at one of the producers tested positive for a strain of salmonella that appears to match the variety identified in eggs that have sickened at least 1,500 people, according to preliminary Food and Drug Administration reports of inspections at facilities operated by Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms of Iowa Inc.

FDA officials declined to say how serious the violations were for facilities that house millions of birds. Between them, the two producers have 7.5 million hens. But FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael Taylor said that “clearly the observations here reflect significant deviations from what’s expected.”

Food safety experts said conditions described in the reports are some of the worst they’ve seen in decades.

The reports offer clues to what may have caused the salmonella enteritidis outbreak that prompted the recall of half a billion eggs.

Investigators began examining conditions at the Wright County operation Aug. 12, the day before the company issued its first recall. Inspectors completed their work at that facility on Monday, according to documents released by the FDA.

They found:

  • Barns with dozens of holes chewed by rodents that they, insects and wild birds used to enter and live inside the barns.
  • Flies on and around the egg belts and hen feeders.

  • Manure built up in 4- to 8-foot-tall piles in pits below the hen houses, in such quantities that it pushed pit doors open, allowing rodents and other wild animals access to hen houses.

  • Dozens of hens, which had escaped their cages, roaming freely, tracking manure from the pit to other caged parts of the barns.

  • Hen houses with significant structural damage and improper air-ventilation systems.

    • Investigators checked out the Hillandale site Aug. 19-26. Their tests of spent water from an egg wash station came up positive for salmonella, although it was not clear whether that contaminated water had been used to clean eggs, an FDA official said.

    Wright County Egg recalled a total of 380 million eggs beginning Aug. 13, and Hillandale has since pulled 170 million eggs from the market. Last week, FDA officials said that salmonella tests taken at both operations came back positive.

    FDA officials declined to discuss what, if any, penalties the egg producers might face. Possible penalties include court orders requiring improvements in operations or criminal prosecution. Wright County Egg owner Austin DeCoster has a decades-long record of regulatory violations in at least three states and has paid millions of dollars in fines and settlements.

    The agency also said that next month it would begin inspection of the nation’s 600 largest egg farms, which produce 80 percent of the nation’s eggs.

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