An outbreak of salmonella infections that sent business plummeting at a Durham institution, Bullock's Bar-B-Q, has been traced to an Iowa egg producer, according to state health officials.
Similar salmonella outbreaks across the nation have led to the recall of hundreds of millions of eggs from Iowa's Wright County Egg, a national distributor, federal health officials said Thursday.
Much of the investigation has been centered on restaurants in California, Colorado, Minnesota and North Carolina, which all purchased eggs from Wright County Egg. The eggs were sold around the country under the brands Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp.
In North Carolina, a cluster of about 80 illnesses in April was linked to an egg white product used in banana pudding and chocolate pie with meringue served at Bullock's, health officials said.
"We're very confident the outbreak at Bullock's caused by the commercial egg product can be traced back to eggs in this recall," Megan Davies, North Carolina's state epidemiologist, said Thursday.
A month after the salmonella was reported at the restaurant, Sam Poley, a former chef and restaurant owner who now directs marketing at the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau, and more than a dozen other chefs and restaurant owners lunched at Bullock's to show their support. Poley said owner Tommy Bullock's business had fallen 80 percent after the outbreak made news reports.
Bullock's is the longest-operating restaurant in Durham. In its 59 years, Bullock's has never had a sanitation grade below A, Poley said at the May gathering. Famous diners at Bullock's have included Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks and Vice President Joe Biden.
Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said almost 2,000 illnesses from the strain of salmonella bacterium linked to the eggs were reported nationally between May and July, about 1,300 more than usual, he added. No deaths have been reported.
The recall of 380 million eggs, one of the largest shell egg recalls recently , will likely grow, because illnesses after mid-July may not have been reported yet, he said
The most common symptoms of salmonella poisoning are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight hours to 72 hours of eating a tainted food. Salmonella poisoning can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immunity.
The form of salmonella tied to the outbreak can be passed from chickens that appear healthy. It grows inside eggs, not just on the shell, Braden said. Thoroughly cooking eggs can kill the bacterium . But health officials are recommending people throw away or return the recalled eggs.
The CDC said investigations by 10 states since April have identified 25 restaurant cases in which more than one person became ill. Preliminary information showed that Wright was the supplier in at least 15 of those.
