The organism was isolated only from the culture of the shells and was identified as S heidelberg . The content sample from the same dozen eggs was Salmonella -free as were the content and shell samples of a second dozen eggs from the same lot. Serotyping, which was available for two of the three isolates, found only one to be S enteritidis . Information concerning infection rates of poultry flocks in Arkansas is difficult to obtain. According to this study, as many as 30 of the 406 egg production houses were from Arkansas, but data from individual houses or states were not presented.
Data concerning egg contamination are equally difficult to locate.
It is unknown whether any of these breaking houses were in Arkansas. Surveillance methods used in these studies probably reflect environmental, machinery, or eggshell contamination and not internal contamination. The results of these two studies may represent only an indirect measure of the prevalence of S enteritidis -infected flocks by region of the United States. These two studies suggest that Arkansas would be at risk of having a moderate amount of poultry contamination with S enteritidis and therefore would have an increased amount of human disease associated with this organism. These data suggest that the poultry flocks and shell eggs in Arkansas may not be contaminated at the rate indicated by the regionalized data mentioned or that precautions are being taken to prevent the public from obtaining eggs from infected flocks.