Des Moines Register (link no longer available)
By Philip Brasher
Washington, D.C. – Maine officials worried so much about a salmonella outbreak from Jack DeCoster’s egg operations that they forced him to take steps to stop the contamination, including hiring a staff veterinarian.
Contrast that with the situation in Iowa, which doesn’t have its own standards for egg safety and does not inspect egg farms, including DeCoster’s Wright County operations, which have been linked to the nation’s largest known outbreak of the type of salmonella found in eggs.
“My worst nightmare was what happened in Iowa,” said Don Hoenig, Maine’s state veterinarian.
It’s time for Iowa, the nation’s leading egg producer, to require vaccination of hens and start its own inspection program to supplement new national regulations, said Francis Thicke, the Democratic candidate for state agriculture secretary. Republican incumbent Bill Northey and a spokesman for the Iowa industry disagreed, saying it’s better to have uniform standards nationwide.
“This is like our BP moment,” Thicke said. “We need to do something. We just can’t wait.”
DeCoster’s Wright County Egg and a second company that used its hens and feed, Hillandale Farms of Iowa, recalled 550 million eggs in August after they were linked to the outbreak involving more than 1,500 reported illnesses.
Maine, DeCoster’s home state, is one of about 10 states that had their own egg safety standards before the Food and Drug Administration put the first national regulations into effect in July. But in most states, Maine being an exception, the standards are voluntary.
Maine has nine commercial-scale egg farms, seven owned by DeCoster, and its state standards go well beyond the FDA’s rules. Maine inspects conditions on farms every month. Two and a half years ago, the state started requiring farms to vaccinate all of their hens and to test the birds to ensure they are resistant to the bacteria.
In addition, because DeCoster had failed to rid his farms of the salmonella strain, the state ordered him to hire both a staff veterinarian and a specialist in rodent control to rid the farms of mice.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere near being able to say we’ve eliminated it (salmonella), but we’re seeing some good results,” said Hoenig. None of the state’s farms has had a positive test for salmonella in 11 months, he said.
Hoenig said Maine’s production has stayed stable despite its rules. The nine farms in Maine together house 4 million hens, less than 10 percent of Iowa’s total.
The FDA plans to inspect the 600 largest egg farms nationwide over the next 15 months for compliance with its regulations but hasn’t said how frequently the operations will be checked after that. The agency is in discussions with the Iowa Department of Agriculture about using state inspectors to enforce the national standards in Iowa.
Northey said it’s not possible to know what other steps should be taken to combat salmonella until the FDA finishes its investigation of the DeCoster operations. He said more study is needed on the effectiveness of vaccinating hens.
Iowa had its own egg safety program in the 1990s, but it was abandoned as national regulations were being developed, said Kevin Vinchattle, executive director of the Iowa Egg Council, the industry trade group. The FDA standards should be in place for some time before additional measures are considered, he said.
Paul Patterson, a poultry extension specialist in Pennsylvania, said some farms can prevent salmonella contamination without vaccinating hens. Vaccination makes hens less susceptible to the bacteria but doesn’t eliminate it, experts say.
In Iowa, DeCoster’s Wright County Egg consults with an outside veterinarian for salmonella prevention and hires an entomologist to inspect the farms for pests, said spokeswoman Hinda Mitchell. Wright County Egg and Hillandale had vaccinated most but not all of their flocks.
Many of the state egg-safety standards, including Maine’s and Pennsylvania’s, date to the 1980s and early 1990s when farms in the Northeast were struggling to contain an outbreak of salmonella.
The FDA standards are based on Pennsylvania’s voluntary egg safety program. Farms with about 70 percent of the state’s 21.5 million hens participate and pay the user fees that fund the inspections. Other states with similar programs include California, Maryland and Ohio, the second-largest egg producer after Iowa.
A Pennsylvania producer, Paul Sauder, said he’s happy to see national standards that farms in states without egg safety programs will have to meet.
“There’s no question there’s going to be more regulation, more oversight, but I welcome it because it’s going to make our egg industry a better industry,” he said.
Additional Facts
Egg producers called to testify
Jack DeCoster and Orland Bethel, the two figures at the center of the salmonella outbreak traced to Iowa eggs, will answer questions from a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee at a Sept. 21 hearing, spokeswomen for the executives said.
If the men cooperate with the lawmakers, that would set them apart from Stewart Parnell, the peanut butter maker who in 2009 refused to answer questions about a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to his products.
DeCoster owns Wright County Egg, while Bethel owns Hillandale Farms of Iowa, which used Wright County Eggs’ hens and feed.
Meanwhile Monday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced legislation that would make it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison to knowingly sell tainted food. It’s now a misdemeanor offense for first-time offenders, and even then the government rarely prosecutes. The stiffer law wouldn’t take effect until the bill is enacted.
