Born Free Egg Safety and Quality Assurance Program

• Purchase chicks from U.S. Sanitation Monitored Salmonella Enteritidis negative breeder flocks.
• Obtain samples of chick dropping papers at time of delivery. Sample every 10th chick paper and submit to laboratory for Salmonella Enteritidis (SE).
• Sample and culture the manure at 10 to 15 weeks of age. A culture will consist of two samples taken from the manure beneath each row of cages.
• Maintain a defined rodent control and monitoring program.
• Houses with positive manure or chick samples must be cleaned and disinfected before new chicks can be placed.

Layers

• Purchase and place pullets from an SE vaccinated and monitored flock. Pullets from an unknown or SE monitored flock. Pullets from an unknown or SE positive status house or flock will require that the manure sampled and cultured 7 to 14 days after placement.
• Sample and culture manure at 29 to 31 weeks of age and again at 44 to 46 weeks of age. A culture of the manure during any test will consist of two samples taken from the manure beneath each row of cages.
• House with positive manure samples must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected between flocks.

Eggs

• House with negative manure samples will not be required to test eggs.
• Houses with positive manure samples must test 480 nest run eggs or a combination of all available blood spot eggs plus additional nest run eggs to total 480 eggs every 2 weeks for 4 lots of samples. These eggs will be cultured in pools of 20. If the 4 lots of eggs are negative, a sample of 480 eggs (nest run and blood spot) must be sampled each month for the life of the flock.
• If any egg pools are positive, then all eggs must be diverted for pasteurization or hard cooking. To be able to resume sale of eggs as table eggs, 1,000 eggs must be tested in pools of 20 every 2 weeks for 4 lots of samples and test negative. Alternatively, if less than 50% were positive, 4,000 eggs may be tested at one time. Following return to the table egg market, 480 eggs (nest run and blood spot) must be sampled each month for the life of the flock.
• Egg testing will eliminate the need for further environmental testing.
• As additional experience is gained, environmental and egg testing requirements may be modified.

Rodent Control

• A defined rodent control process with record monitoring program must be maintained at all times.

Bio-Security

• All participants must maintain an acceptable bio-security program.

Refrigeration

• Eggs must be kept at 45° F or below from the point of packing through delivery.

Processing Plant

• Processing plants must strictly enforce the requirements detailed in Born Free Safety and Quality Assurance Program. These include employee sanitation, refrigeration, egg washing and sanitation, water testing, packing materials, carton coding and records.