Staphylococcal food poisoning associated with an Easter egg hunt
G. A. Merrill, S. B. Werner, R. G. Bryant, D. Fredson and K. Kelly
Staphylococcal contamination of intact, hard-boiled eggs resulted in the
food poisoning of an estimated 300 children out of 850 who had participated
in an Easter egg hunt. Enterotoxigenic staphylococci that were isolated
from the Easter eggs matched that obtained from an infected cook who
prepared the eggs three to five days before the hunt and which he left
unrefrigerated. Experimental studies demonstrated that heated eggs can
absorb 2 mL of contaminated cool water through intact eggshells. When water
was inoculated with pathogenic staphylococci at even low contamination
levels, rapid growth and enterotoxin production within cooked eggs could be
easily duplicated. This is the first large outbreak of its type; safeguards
can and should be employed to prevent future ones.