WASHINGTON — A major egg producer linked to an outbreak of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,500 people conducted tests as far back as 2008 that indicated the possible presence of the dangerous bacteria in its henhouses, according to records released on Tuesday by Congressional investigators.
The records show that there were 73 instances over about two years in which sponges swabbed on egg conveyor belts and other areas in Wright County Egg’s barns showed the presence of salmonella bacteria, including the strain that infects eggs and causes human illness. In at least one case, further tests showed that the toxic form, Salmonella enteritidis, was present.
Records the company provided to Congress, however, “did not show whether Wright County Egg took appropriate steps to protect the public after receiving the positive test results,” Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, wrote in a letter this week to Austin J. DeCoster, the owner of the company.
Mr. Stupak has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday at which Mr. DeCoster, known as Jack, is expected to testify. Mr. Stupak and Representative Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, asked Mr. DeCoster to be prepared to explain what actions his company took in response to the positive test results and “whether you shared these results with F.D.A. or other federal or state food safety officials.”
Wright County Egg and another company, Hillandale Farms, recalled more than 500 million eggs last month after health officials traced salmonella bacteria to those companies. A subsequent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration found that the barns of the egg producers were infested with flies, maggots and rodents, and had overflowing manure pits.
The inspections were the first by the F.D.A. to check compliance with new federal egg safety rules that were written well before the current outbreak and went into effect in July.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Stupak, Karen Lightfoot, said that investigators also had lab test records from Hillandale Farms but were still reviewing them.
In his letter, Mr. Stupak noted that his committee had asked for the results of all tests taken in Wright County Egg’s barns that showed salmonella contamination. “Despite the committee’s specific request, your response on Sept. 11, 2010, did not include the 73 potentially positive results for Salmonella enteritidis,” he wrote.
Ms. Lightfoot would not disclose how investigators uncovered the test results. The tests were mainly performed by the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Wright County Egg said that it was committed to fully cooperating with the committee and had provided test results to Congress and the F.D.A. last week.
“We have requested and continue to ask for information from F.D.A. about how our testing results relate to the current outbreak strain being investigated,” the company said. “We are critically interested in how this situation occurred and continue to consider that feed ingredient contamination may be a root cause of this problem.”
The discovery that Wright County Egg had known for years of possible salmonella contamination followed a similar finding more than a year ago that the Peanut Corporation of America shipped its product to customers without waiting for test results to prove that it was safe. When test results showed that the product was contaminated, the company’s plant manager responded with an e-mail saying, “Uh-oh,” but did not order that the product be returned.
Eight deaths and more than 550 illnesses were associated with the contaminated peanut product, which led to one of the largest food recalls in the nation’s history.
In the case of Wright County Egg, nearly all of the tests appear to be of areas within the barns, not of the eggs themselves. When such environmental tests show contamination, it is cause for concern but not proof that the food products are contaminated.
Under the new federal egg rules, a test of the farm environment that shows the presence of the toxic form of the bacteria would require that eggs from the farm be tested. If the bacteria is present in the eggs, then they would have to be diverted to pasteurization, a process that destroys the bacteria.
Broad food safety legislation passed by the House last year would allow the F.D.A. to require that, in some instances, the results of safety tests be automatically forwarded to regulators. Companion legislation pending in the Senate, however, does not give the F.D.A. the power to ask that such records automatically be turned over. Both bills, however, would require that companies provide such records to F.D.A. inspectors upon request.
“This once again highlights how outdated our 70-year-old food law is,” said Erik Olson, deputy director of the Pew Health Group. “If a food company has known problems, it’s unclear at what point they have to report that to the F.D.A. — if ever.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the F.D.A. said it was continuing to “review records and evaluate the results of our inspections.”
Gregory P. Martin, a poultry specialist at Pennsylvania State University, said that for many years, thousands of salmonella tests had been done annually on egg farms in Pennsylvania as part of a voluntary program that had been highly successful in combating salmonella. Mr. Martin said that it was rare for those tests to yield a positive result for Group D salmonella, the group identified in the 73 tests at Wright County Egg farms and which includes Salmonella enteritidis.
“If it shows up in the environment, it’s a red flag that we need to look further to help eliminate it off the farm,” Mr. Martin said.
The records released by Congress showed hundreds of instances in which salmonella of some type was found at Wright County Egg farms.
But Mr. Martin said the presence of generic salmonella on a farm meant little, since there were many types of harmless salmonella in the environment. But any samples that show the presence of Group D salmonella should be sent for further testing for the toxic form, he said.
The test reports released by Congressional investigators showed that in many cases, the samples were sent for further testing, but it was generally unclear what the additional testing found.
Only one report, dated Aug. 4, just days before the recall, showed that additional testing had confirmed the presence of Salmonella enteritidis.
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