Lawsuit filed against Iowa egg farms

A lawsuit seeking class-action status has been filed in a federal court in Chicago against the two Iowa egg farms implicated in a current nationwide Salmonella outbreak.

According to an AP report, the lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms of running negligent, unsterile environments in the manufacture of eggs since 2008.

Yesterday we reported on the USA Today investigation which showed Wright County Egg hid more than 400 reports of Salmonella contamination at its farm since 2008.

More than 1,500 people have gotten sick in reports from across the country after eating eggs produced by one of these two farms. Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms each sell their eggs to nationwide food distributors and restaurants.

The Food and Drug Administration has investigated the conditions at the farm, and found numerous sources of a possible Salmonella contamination: including rodent and bird infestations, uncontained manure, holes in walls and contaminated hen feed, among other problems.

Contaminated feed may ultimately be to blame for the Salmonella problem in the eggs. Not only is the food-borne bacteria nearly everywhere at the farm, it being in the feed given to young hens brings the likelihood those birds will produce contaminated eggs.

According to the lawsuit, the farms “failed to utilize and/or implement a reasonably sterile environment in the manufacture of eggs; and failed to manufacture eggs in a reasonably safe condition for public consumption.”

The six plaintiffs include a 69-year-old woman from Orland Park, Ill.; a 48-year-old woman of Gulfport, Miss.; a woman whose age wasn’t given from Greensboro, N.C.; a 67-year-old man from New Windsor, N.Y., a woman whose age wasn’t given from Pittsburgh; and a woman from Carmel, Ind., whose daughter became ill after eating contaminated eggs.

At least one of the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit remains hospitalized, and has been there for more than a month, according to AP.