ABSTRACT
Diverse microorganisms, including pathogens such as Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia enterocolitica, are sometimes found on eggshells and can survive or grow in the edible liquid contents of eggs (Jones et al., 2015; Ricke et al., 2015). However, the vast majority of egg-associated human illnesses are attributed to bacteria of the genus Salmonella. Before the passage of the 1970 Egg Products Inspection Act in the United States, infections with a wide variety of Salmonella serovars had a long history of association with contaminated eggs. This legislation, which prohibited the commercial marketing of cracked or dirty table eggs and instituted dependably effective pasteurization standards for liquid egg products, resulted in very substantial reductions in the frequency of egg-transmitted human salmonellosis in the years which followed.
