Illnesses in the Egg Salmonella Outbreak Began More Than Six Months Before the Recalled Eggs Were Laid

The recall notice covers eggs produced over 28 days. The outbreak it is attached to spans 222.

That gap is the most important detail in the multistate Salmonella Enteritidis investigation that federal officials have linked to shell eggs, and it is the reason the Food and Drug Administration has been careful to say the recall explains some of the illnesses rather than all of them.