Salmonella possesses several surface components which are virulence related, including outer membrane protein, flagella (Fla) and, in some strains, fimbrial antigens. Salmonella contamination occurs through the consumption of contaminated foods like egg, milk and poultry meat.
Symptoms of salmonellosis are usually limited to mild gastroenteritis but may include fever, headache, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Patients usually recover within a week. But the illness can lead to systemic illness and other longer-term conditions.
Egg contamination by Salmonella enteritidis is one of the most important causes of foodborne gastroenteritis in humans throughout the world. In poultry the disease often goes unnoticed but sometimes may present clinically in birds as depression, poor growth, weakness, diarrhoea and dehydration.
There are two possible routes of egg contamination by Salmonella. Eggs can be contaminated by penetration through the eggshell from the colonized gut or from contaminated feces during or after oviposition (horizontal transmission).
The second possible route is by direct contamination of the yolk, albumen, eggshell membranes or eggshells before oviposition, originating from the infection of reproductive organs with S. enteritidis
The organism S. enteritidis, a common cause of gastroenteritis, has been found to be transferred through the hen ovary in fewer than 1 percent of all eggs produced.
S. enterica, serovar Enteritidis is implicated in 60% of salmonellosis in European people and is the world’s leading cause of salmonellosis.
Salmonella enteritidis
