Australians receive salmonella warning

The director of Public Health, Roscoe Taylor, is asking Tasmanians to return any cracked or dirty eggs to shops because of a growing salmonella outbreak in the north-west section of the state.

Taylor says it is difficult to pinpoint the exact source of the outbreak, but contaminated eggs are almost certainly the cause and several local suppliers have withdrawn their eggs. A Somerset bakery closed voluntarily after being linked to 11 of 16 people that have now reported food poisoning in the last two weeks. He is urging people to return any cracked or dirty eggs to where they bought them.

Although eggs from different farms often end up in the same carton, Taylor says the salmonella-affected eggs are not sold by the two major supermarket chains, Woolworths and Coles .

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