Provision of adequate food to their inhabitants and assure an atmosphere free from hunger and malnutrition is the responsibility of a civilized government. The food security objective becomes more important when 15-20% of the world population is not getting sufficient food to meet minimum nutritional requirements for a healthy and productive life. Proteins play an important role in the formation of balanced human diet. There are mainly two sources of proteins i.e. animals and plants. Commercial egg production is an important economic enterprise offering more rapid and efficient return than many other livestock production operations. In 1999-2000, 13.9 million commercial layers in Pakistan produced 3,261 million eggs contributing 27% eggs to the total egg production of 8677 million eggs.
The incidence of food borne diseases is increasing globally. Many cases of food borne illness occur as a result of improper food handling and preparation by consumers in their own kitchens. Some of the most compelling evidences have come from the international data on Salmonella and Campylobacter species infections. Food-producing animals (e.g., cattle, chickens and turkeys) are the major reservoirs for many of these organisms. A total of 500 raw chicken eggs were bought from different retail outlets in Lahore city for determining the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter inside and on the egg shell and enumeration of their load. Samples were graded as clean, trace, dirty and cracked. All samples were processed inside the safety cabinet. Eggs were broken from narrow end and contents were drained in the petri plate. Egg shell and egg shell membrane was processed by shell crush method in a tube in the presence of phosphate buffer saline. Sample from egg yolk and albumin was taken by direct aspiration while egg shell rinse was taken as a sample for Salmonella and Campylobacter. Isolation is done by enrichment method for this purpose selenite broth and buffered peptone water is used for Salmonella and campylobacter, respectively. The enriched sample was then plated on the Brilliant Green Plate selective for Salmonella and Campy Cefex Agar plate that is selective for Campylobacter. Thirteen samples out of 500 hundred samples were positive for presence Salmonella with over all prevalence of 2.6%. Highest percent prevalence was found in cracked eggs where it is 33.3% followed by dirty and clean eggs (0.9%) and trace eggs with zero prevalence. Colony forming units of Salmonella on the shell of one positive sample is 4.2x102 while CFUs in egg yolk of cracked egg was 7.0x102. Regarding Campylobacter five eggs out of 500 eggs were positive with overall prevalence of 1%. The highest prevalence was found in cracked eggs where it was 16.6% and dirty eggs having prevalence of 12.5%. Both clean and trace eggs were having zero prevalence. CFUs for Campylobacter were too low to count while majority of samples were observed negative for viable CFUs for Campylobacter.