Salmonellosis: Raw egg disease. Salmonellosis in quail and chicken eggs - how to recognize

Raw bird eggs are widely used in cooking. The product is used for making sauces, ready meals and desserts. Every housewife should know that salmonella in chicken eggs can lead to serious illness.

Source of infection

is a Gram-negative bacterium of the genus Salmonella. Resistant to environmental influences. Salmonella requires animal protein to reproduce.

The carriers of the infection are wild and domestic birds. Bacteria multiply in the intestines of ducks, chickens, quails and geese. The release of the pathogen into the external environment occurs along with feces. Salmonellosis is transmitted through contaminated food.

Typical symptoms of an intestinal infection: frequent loose stools mixed with greenery and mucus (swamp mud), repeated vomiting, abdominal pain. The disease begins acutely, intoxication and dehydration rapidly develop. Salmonellosis is common in children and adults.

Where is the pathogen located?

Pets live indoors, which helps spread the infection. For a salmonellosis outbreak in a chicken coop, one sick bird is enough.

There is a high risk of infection after eating raw eggs. Salmonella get on the shell when the masonry is contaminated with infected droppings. After three days, the bacteria pass through the protective shell and find themselves inside.

Can you get salmonellosis from eating poultry? When slaughtering and cutting carcasses, it is necessary to observe the rules of sanitation and hygiene. Salmonella contamination of chicken meat is a common occurrence.

Is there salmonellosis in quail eggs?

A valuable product with unique nutritional properties. Quail eggs are hypoallergenic, contain a large amount of vitamins and minerals.

Widely used in dietary nutrition. Due to the high content of lecithin, they lower the level of cholesterol in the blood.

The amino acid tyrosine has a beneficial effect on metabolic processes in the connective tissue. Lysocin inhibits the development of pathogens.

The body temperature of healthy birds exceeds 40 ◦C, which creates additional difficulties for the reproduction of the pathogen. The calcareous shell is thin, with microscopic pores, so salmonella in quail eggs is rare.

It must be remembered that infection is possible when the product is consumed raw. Quails get sick with salmonellosis as often as ducks or chickens. Any poultry can become infected due to improper care and feeding.

The main source of infection is compound feed, which is made from processed entrails of pigs and cattle. Constant stay in a cramped poultry house creates favorable conditions for the reproduction of microorganisms.

How to check the product for infection?

Salmonella in eggs can be detected by bacteriological examination. You can check the products in a special laboratory. A suspicious egg is wiped with an alcohol solution and burned.

The lime shell is opened with sterile tweezers. For bacteriological culture, the inner part is used.

In a laboratory study, the number and type of Salmonella are determined. For bacterial seeding, a tenfold and a hundredfold dilution of biological material is performed. The analysis is placed in a thermostat for 48 hours. The optimum temperature for bacteria growth is 37 ◦C.

How to prevent infection?

Many people like to buy products from farmers. In this case, the risk of Salmonella infection is significantly increased. Often, keeping poultry in private farms does not meet sanitary standards. Despite careful control, salmonellosis infection is possible when buying goods in a store. To avoid, precautions must be taken.

do not buy goods from unfamiliar merchants;
monitor the integrity of the shell;
do not use the product with traces of blood;
be sure to check the expiration date (safe is 2 days);
store in a separate container;
when preparing, observe the rules of hygiene.

The raw product is forbidden to be included in the diet of young children and pregnant women. Proper preparation and careful heat treatment will help prevent poisoning.

First you need to wash the egg. This will help remove most of the pathogenic bacteria from the shell. How to wash eggs correctly?

water should not be hot;
it is recommended to use laundry soap;
be careful not to damage the shell.

Processing will help prevent bacteria from getting inside. If the contents are infected, proper cooking can save you from infection. Salmonella is resistant to damaging factors. When frozen, bacteria retain their viability for more than 12 months.

Preventive measures against infection

At what temperature does salmonella, which is found in eggs, die? Boiling kills bacteria after 5 minutes. For your safety, you need to boil hard-boiled eggs. At 60 ◦C Salmonella die in 13-16 minutes. It is recommended to heat food up to 75 degrees. The minimum cooking time is 15 minutes.

Soft-boiled eggs (with a liquid core) are not recommended for consumption. Fry omelettes on both sides. Readiness criterion - fully hardened yolk. For the preparation of fried eggs, it is better to use quail eggs.

Salmonellosis is especially dangerous for young children and debilitated patients with reduced immunity. Infection during pregnancy is also undesirable. With a pronounced deficiency of immunity, salmonellosis can go into a septic form. Following the recommendations for cooking will help to avoid infection and maintain health.

Video: how to recognize salmonellosis in eggs

Salmonellosis is a serious intestinal infectious disease that, if left untreated, is often fatal. Characteristic signs of infection are intestinal colic, fever, liquid yellow or dark green stools, pain in the abdomen, and fever. The incubation period lasts from 3 days to a week.

Chicken eggs, dairy and meat products are recognized as the main "provocateurs" of salmonellosis, but this does not mean that you can get infected only through them. There are other reasons why salmonellosis will not be long in coming.

Ways of infection

In addition to the direct consumption of salmonella-poisoned products, the contact-household route of infection from a sick person is widespread, with close contact with him (living in the same apartment, staying together in the ward, etc.). How is salmonellosis transmitted in these conditions:

through faeces (if the patient does not wash his hands after the toilet, he touches objects in the room with them);
close bodily contact with an infected person;
use of personal belongings of the patient.

People with weak immunity (often ill, the elderly, and especially children) are most often susceptible to salmonellosis, since the defenses of their body cannot resist infections for various reasons. For the rest, the threat of developing the disease is relatively small.

Salmonellosis in the egg - as far as possible

No wonder it is believed that the risk of "catching" salmonella from chicken eggs is especially high. This poultry is indeed prone to salmonellosis. But there is one significant “but” here: fresh eggs cannot be initially infected, even if they were laid by a sick chicken. The reason for the ingress of bacteria on the masonry is chicken manure saturated with pathogens, in which the shell can be stained. It is from this moment that the product becomes dangerous in terms of infection with salmonellosis.

Salmonella: on the shell or inside

Since the litter falls on the shell, salmonella also initially swarm only on it. As already mentioned, the inside itself cannot be sick immediately after "going out into the world." But after some time, the bacteria penetrate the protective shell, after which the contents become infected.

If, stained with infected droppings, the shell is damaged, Salmonella in eggs turns out to be much faster, because the pathogen no longer needs time to penetrate through the hard shell. The road for the disease opens immediately.

But this does not mean that after using such a product a person will definitely get sick. And it's not just immunity. With proper processing and proper preparation, egg poisoning becomes impossible.

How not to get infected

Chicken eggs are a very common product that is always in every home. It is they that are part of various dishes, finished store products, and eating them separately is also loved by many.

Read also: Salmonellosis what is this disease

But in order not to become infected with salmonellosis, it is important to follow the rules for selecting, storing and processing eggs:

Do not buy the product in dubious places and from unknown persons (from unfamiliar private traders at bazaars, stations).
When buying, carefully check the shell for damage (in no case should you take broken, cracked, leaking eggs, as well as with traces of blood on them).
Buy only fresh produce.
Wash hands before eating, preparing food (especially after touching the shell).
Try not to eat raw eggs, and even more so do not give them to children under 3 years of age.
Store in the refrigerator and in a special container (do not allow contact with other products).
This product must be washed before use.
It is preferable to purchase in stores where the product is in any case certified and sold with an expiration date (on the package or directly on each egg in the form of a stamp).

Following these guidelines will help to protect yourself from salmonellosis to some extent, but this alone is not always enough. No need to think that a product bought in a store is already a guarantee of the impossibility of poisoning. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Briefly about store products

Eggs most often come to the shelves from poultry farms, where the health of the bird is strictly controlled. But with a large population, it is not always realistic to keep track of whether each individual is healthy. Therefore, at the very beginning, when only a few from the entire (often huge) number of birds fall ill, and this fact has not yet been established, sick chickens have time to lay down and stain the shell with droppings. This will be the beginning of the penetration of infected products into the market.

Salmonellosis in eggs from the store is not so common, but you should not ignore such a possibility. Therefore, washing, as a processing step before consumption, is considered mandatory.

How to clean the shell properly

It is necessary to wash eggs before use, observing certain conditions:

The water should be warm (not hot, so as not to provoke the beginning of the denaturation of the protein layers under the shell).
Use laundry soap (this will partially kill the bacteria).
Do not squeeze the shell with your hands so that it does not crack, and salmonella does not instantly get inside.

Such processing will provide some help, but will not save if the content is already infected. In such cases, the only way out is to properly cook the eggs at the proper temperature for the required amount of time.

Safe Cooking

Salmonella is a viable pathogen. She is able to withstand up to six months in water, and she does not care about the cold: in deep freezing, she remains viable for about 12 months.

But high temperatures are detrimental to her, and the correct heat treatment of any product is the main enemy of salmonella. At what temperature does the pathogen die?

at least at 55 ° C, the death of the bacterium occurs after an hour and a half;
at 60°C, after 12-15 minutes.

Thus, to be safe, you need to ensure exposure to high temperature for a sufficient amount of time. Doctors insist that you need to boil hard-boiled eggs for at least 15 minutes (including goose and duck). After that, salmonella does not survive, and the risk of infection is no longer guaranteed.

Raw and half-raw eggs are part of many dishes. They are used in sauces, creams, desserts and as an independent dish. If the hostess prepares dishes from eggs without proper heat treatment, then the risk of salmonellosis infection may hang over the whole family. This infectious disease affects the digestive organs and greatly reduces immunity.. Young children are especially hard hit. It has already been proven that salmonellosis in quail eggs is also found. Although for a long time it was believed that quails have an elevated body temperature, at which the pathogen stick dies. Whether it is worth risking health and eating raw eggs is up to everyone to decide for themselves.

Eggs are the source of infection

Experts point out that coli carriers are not eggs, but infected birds. But if the litter of a sick chicken gets on the eggshell, then after three days the inside of the egg will be infected and dangerous for raw consumption. Therefore, veterinary services at poultry farms carefully monitor so that the litter does not fall on the shell.

A person who wants to protect himself and his family from salmonella should only use eggs from healthy chickens. For example, those that were grown by a grandmother in a tree or purchased at a centralized outlet. Eggs must be fresh, it is better to eat the product if it is no more than 2 days old. In this case, the chance of earning salmonellosis from eggs is much lower.

You can not buy egg fight, especially if the eggs have leaked out of the shell. Saving in some cases can cost health. Do not eat the product if there is a lot of droppings on the shell or there are traces of blood.

General characteristics of the disease

Salmonellosis is a very insidious disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract and leads to general intoxication of the body. The causative agent is a pathogenic bacillus, oblong in appearance. This pathogenic microorganism does not form spores. Salmonella are very resistant to environmental influences, they can survive when the product is smoked or salted. But when boiled, they die almost instantly:

Even with a long stay of raw chicken eggs in the refrigerator, more than 2 weeks, the bacterium can penetrate the whole shell and begin active reproduction inside the white and yolk.
Freezing contaminated food products does not lead to anything; the pathogen survives well at low temperatures.
There are varieties of Salmonella that are completely resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants.

Once in the human body, pathogenic microbes begin to multiply rapidly, which leads to severe intoxication and damage to important organs and systems. An infected person develops severe diarrhea within a few days, which quickly leads to dehydration if left untreated.

Ultraviolet radiation quickly kills the salmonella bacillus, so a quartz lamp will be a good purchase. Especially considering that salmonellosis is also transmitted by household means.

Is it possible to recognize infected eggs

Many people have a natural question, is it possible to somehow recognize dangerous salmonellosis in eggs so as not to eat contaminated foods? Actually the presence of sticks in products is not visually determined in any way. You can only find out that the eggs are infected based on the results of laboratory tests.

Any products that contain a pathogenic microorganism are no different from quality products. Taste, color and smell do not change. Products can look quite presentable and at the same time carry a serious danger.

Salmonellosis in quail eggs - myth and reality

If a raw chicken egg is potentially dangerous due to the danger of salmonella, then raw quail eggs, many nutritionists recommend giving even to young children. This is really a great dietary product that improves appetite and boosts immunity. So is it still possible to get infected by eating quail products?

Quails often have diseases that are caused by a salmonella bacillus. And if pullorosis, a type of salmonellosis, is not dangerous for people, then the enteritidis bacterium leads to serious consequences.

To the question - can quails get sick with salmonellosis, you can answer in the affirmative. In the eggs of these birds, without heat treatment, there is also a dangerous infection.

It is not possible to tell from the appearance of a poultry whether it is a carrier. A perfectly healthy chicken or duck may simply be a carrier of the wand.

Prevention of salmonellosis

In order not to get sick, it will not be enough just to treat the eggs from salmonellosis with a detergent. If there is litter on the shell or it is damaged, then it is likely that the contents are infected with a pathogenic bacillus. In order not to get infected, you must adhere to a number of rules:

Eggs should be bought only at special points of sale, where all products are checked by the sanitary service. You should not buy food in spontaneous markets, as well as in unfamiliar farms.
You need to buy fresh eggs that are only a few days old. If the product is left for a long time, then this increases the likelihood of Salmonella infection.
Wash eggs thoroughly with soap and water before cooking. They are washed in order to remove pathogenic microorganisms from the shell.
Eggs are stored in the refrigerator on a separate shelf, they should not touch other products.
Soft-boiled eggs are not recommended, especially for young children and people with weakened immune systems.
Pregnant and lactating women should not eat raw and undercooked egg dishes. Perhaps intrauterine infection of the fetus, as well as infection of the baby through breast milk.

Regardless of where the pathogen is located - inside a raw egg or outside, a person can become infected if they eat this product in its raw form. You should not risk your health and children, it is better to subject the eggs to proper heat treatment.

Good immunity is the best defense against infection

Doctors say that salmonella bacteria are everywhere, so these bacilli often enter the body of people of different ages. But adults and children do not get sick in all cases, since the immune system reliably protects them from many diseases. The chance of getting infected increases many times over if the immune system is weakened. due to long-term treatment with antibiotics and in chronic diseases.

Salmonellosis infection in young children is very dangerous, so it is not recommended to include raw eggs in the diet for children under 3 years old.

Many parents give their children raw sawn eggs and do not even know if quails are carriers of salmonella. No need to risk the health and life of the baby. You can strengthen immunity not only with raw quail eggs, but also with seasonal vegetables and fruits.. Harm from fresh plant products will be much less.

Abdominal infections are extremely unpleasant consequences after eating contaminated and improperly prepared food.

Most often, the culprits of infection are eggs eaten raw (including creams, desserts, drinks, mayonnaise - home and industrial production) and half-baked (fried eggs, soft-boiled eggs). Also, Salmonella infection can occur from meat of cattle and poultry, dairy products and fish.

In addition to food, you can get sick with salmonellosis from the external environment without washing your hands after the street, ignoring wet cleaning in the apartment (the bacterium can live up to three months in dust) or swimming in the lake.

The possibility of salmonella in chicken eggs is well known. At the same time, regarding quails and caesarins, there are misconceptions in society that they cannot be infected with salmonella bacteria.

It's important to know! Regardless of the type of poultry (chickens, ducks, guinea fowls, quails, geese, turkeys), with improper feeding and maintenance, there is a risk of contamination of the herd with salmonella.

Once infected, birds become carriers of the bacterium that lives in their intestines.

When chickens or other domestic birds lay their eggs, the infection remains on the shell along with particles of droppings.

If you do not wash the eggs, then after a while the bacterium penetrates the shell and infects the contents.

When they say that salmonella in quail eggs and caesarins cannot be - the excuse is the dense shell of eggs and the high body temperature of birds, however, this is just a delusion.

On forums on the Internet you can find the question: Where is salmonella found in eggs? It is impossible to see the bacterium, it does not affect either the color of the shell or the contents of the egg, and at the same time affects all the contents inside the shell.

The safety of products depends not least on their purity and degree of processing.

Eggs must be inspected in the store, the contents of the package must be free of traces of droppings and cracks. Eggs must be washed with food grade soap or dishwashing gel before use.

How to kill salmonella in an egg?

For eggs to be safe, they must be cooked at a minimum of 75 degrees for 10 minutes. If the yolk remains liquid or soft, it will not work to talk about the destruction of the bacteria.
Some dishes (for example, custard) can be cooked at a temperature of 60 degrees, but 80-90 minutes.

How to kill salmonella in meat?

Cooking in boiling water (100 degrees) small pieces of meat destroys the bacterium almost instantly. However, if the fillet is more than 8 centimeters thick and heavy, then cooking should take 3 hours.

Warming up the finished food should be at a temperature above 70 degrees for 10 minutes.
Some types of Salmonella are highly heat resistant.

By the way, salmonella in poultry meat or a frozen egg will not die, so freezing even for a long time will not protect against bacteria.

Symptoms of Salmonella Infection

The insidious disease manifests itself 6 hours after the spread of the bacteria in the body, but sometimes the incubation period is delayed up to 48 hours.

The predominant manifestation of infection in the gastrointestinal form, so the patient has symptoms:

temperature rise,
loose stools of unnatural color,
nausea or vomiting
pain in the epigastric, middle and suprapubic region,
with severe intoxication, pain in the liver and pancreas may appear,
in case of severe poisoning, the cardiovascular system is affected.

A number of bacteria are resistant to some antibiotics, so the prescription of drugs should be carried out by a doctor. With mild poisoning, treatment is carried out on an outpatient basis, with a moderate and severe form in a hospital.

Salmonellosis cannot be ignored, as there is a high risk of complications for the whole body, for example: septic complications, inflammation in the genitourinary system, heart failure and other serious diseases.

What do we know about salmonellosis? Basically, it is a dangerous infectious disease that can be contracted by eating raw eggs, as well as undercooked or fried chicken. But quail eggs, according to some people, can be eaten raw, because salmonella does not live in them.

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However, most of these opinions are recognized by medical scientists as a frank delusion. What are the most common myths about salmonellosis? Told about it chief freelance infectious disease specialist in Kyiv Tatiana Egorova.

Myth one. Eggs are the source of infection.

Chickens are the source of infection. Not in fresh eggs. However, particles of chicken manure containing bacteria can get on the shell. After some time (from 4 hours to 5 days), the bacteria penetrate the shell into the egg and infect it. Therefore, eggs must be thoroughly washed with soap and water before use.

Myth two. The source of infection is only poultry

It's a delusion. In addition to chickens, cattle, sheep, goats and even pigs carry salmonellosis. Also, the reservoir of infection are rodents, wild birds (sparrows, pigeons, gulls, bullfinches), oysters, snails, caterpillars, cockroaches, flies, bees, frogs, turtles, fish, snakes.

Myth three. Salmonella dies in the freezer

Very hardy. In water, they can survive 5-6 months, in meat and sausage - 3-4 months, in the freezer they can last about six months, and in frozen bird carcasses - even more than a year (very low temperatures, on the contrary, preserves salmonella, leaving them viable) .

Myth four. Fried eggs can be eaten without fear of infection

Indeed, as a result of heat treatment, the pathogen dies. But scrambled eggs can be safely eaten only if they are fried on both sides. But fried eggs remain as dangerous as fresh eggs.

Myth five. Quail eggs do not contain salmonella

scrambled eggs can be safely eaten only if they are fried on both sides

In fact, birds become infected due to poor-quality feeding and improper care. In most cases, the main source of infection is compound feed, which includes processed animal raw materials (mainly cattle and small cattle, pigs). Therefore, if such food is given to quails and if they are kept in a poultry house where the microclimate is disturbed (very hot), then salmonella can also appear in quail eggs.

Myth six. Knife, after they cut raw meat, it is enough to wash it with cold water

Thus (through kitchen equipment) it is very easy to get infected with salmonellosis. After all, raw meat can contain bacteria. Therefore, it will not be sufficient if the knife and cutting board are washed with cold water. To neutralize the pathogen, kitchen utensils must be doused with boiling water. But it is better to allocate a separate knife and a separate kitchen board for meat.

Mythseventh. You can recover from salmonellosis on your own, just take antibiotics

Salmonellosis is a serious infectious disease that, if not properly treated, can become chronic. Therefore, it is imperative to undergo a full course of inpatient treatment. In no case should you self-medicate and take antibiotics - most of the pathogens that cause are resistant to them. Therefore, as a result of improper treatment, a person can turn into a latent carrier of infection and infect others. Therefore, if there are signs of the disease, be sure to consult a doctor.

Salmonellosis symptoms

The symptoms of salmonellosis are similar to those of most other acute intestinal infections. The incubation period averages 12-24 hours (but sometimes it lasts up to 2-3 days).

The disease begins acutely: high fever (up to 38-39 degrees), chills, general weakness, malaise, headache, cramping pain in the abdomen, nausea and vomiting. The chair in most cases is liquid, watery, frothy, greenish in color, with a frequency of 5 to 10 times a day. On the 2nd-3rd day of illness, mucus and blood impurities can be found in the stool. The disease lasts from 3 days to 2 weeks.