Low-cost vaccines that may help prevent the kind of salmonella outbreak that has led to the recall of more than a half-billion eggs haven’t been given to nearly half the US’ egg-laying hens.
The vaccines aren’t required in the US, although in the UK, officials say vaccinations have given them the safest egg supply in Europe.
A survey conducted by the European food safety agency last year found about 1 percent of British flocks had salmonella compared to about 60 percent to 70 percent of flocks elsewhere in Europe, British Egg Information Service spokeswoman Amanda Cryer said. Overall salmonella cases in the country dropped by half within three years.
There’s been no push to require vaccination in the US, in part because it would cost farmers and in part because advocates have focused on more comprehensive food safety reforms, those watching the poultry industry said. The US Food and Drug Administration has also not determined how the hens in Iowa became infected.
However, Darrell Trampel, a poultry veterinarian at Iowa State University, predicted vaccination will become more common after the recent outbreak.
“I think [vaccination] will move from hit and miss to being a standard,” Trampel said.
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