CDC links listeria outbreak to Gainesville egg boiler

Eggs packaged in pails, sold under various names nationwide.

Anyone planning to bring deviled eggs or egg salad to the office potluck is advised to make the dish at home, after a listeria outbreak linked to a Georgia boiled egg producer killed one person and sickened several others around the country.

“Interviews with ill people and laboratory evidence indicate that bulk, fresh hard-boiled eggs produced by Almark Foods of Gainesville, Ga., are a likely source of this outbreak,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thurs- day. The eggs were packaged in plastic pails and sold under various brand names nationwide to grocery stores, restaurants and other food service operations.

The CDC warning does not include the company’s packaged boiled eggs sold directly to consumers, such as the bags of boiled eggs available on store shelves.

Symptoms typically occur within one to four weeks of eating a contaminated product, though sometimes they come on the day of exposure or as late as 70 days afterward. The young and those 65 and older are more at risk of infection. High-risk groups include people on dialysis and those with cancer. Symptoms include fever, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, convulsions and muscle aches.

Pregnant women are also particularly vulnerable. They typically experience fever and other flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and muscle aches.

Infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn.

Seven illnesses were reported in five states — two each in South

Carolina and in Texas and one in Florida, Maine and Pennsylvania. The one death w4as in Texas.

Almark was identified because the genetic strain of the Listeria monocytogenes infections traced back to it. The CDC is not a regulatory agency, so it cannot issue a recall. The agency said it was still working to determine the source of contamination and whether other products were affected.

A spokesman for Almark said U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found the strain on a vent and on the outside of plastic pails used to ship the eggs during a routine inspection in March. The information was entered into a national database, and matched the strain behind the outbreak.

The Almark spokesman, Gene Grabowski, said the company was planning to meet with the FDA this week to discuss whether a recall is warranted.

The plant was disinfected after the FDA inspection, he said, adding that it was possible some pails escaped decontamination or that pails that were shipped before the FDA visit contaminated retail outlets where the eggs were used to make salads, sandwiches and other ready-made food.