Incidence of Salmonella in Egg Yolks of Chicken, Duck and Processed Eggs in Taiwan

YOU-MIN FU, TING SU AND LING-MEI CHOU

National Laboratories of Foods and Drugs, Department of Health, Executive Yuan

ABSTRACT

   Incidence of Salmonella in egg yolk of various processed and non-processed eggs was surveyed in Taiwan. Samples included 250 chicken eggs collected from 50 farms located in Changhua, Tainan and Pingtung counties; 115 duck eggs collected from 6 farms located in Taipei and Ilan counties; 34 salted duck eggs, and 44 thousand-year eggs purchased from retail stores in northern Taiwan. Salmonella was not found in all the egg yolk of all samples. In addition, swabs of 50 chicken egg shell and 7 duck egg shell and 23 environmental samples were collected from the farms mentioned above and examined. S. typhimurium was found in only one of soil sample collected from duck shade.

Key words : Chicken egg, Duck egg, Processed egg, Salmonella