by VDC staff

Fourteen cases of salmonella illness in Vermont have been linked to eggs produced at a Windsor County farm, prompting a recall covering more than three months of production.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and Vermont Department of Health announced Friday that Salmonella Enteritidis was detected in eggs and environmental samples from Leaping Bear Farm in Reading. The farm has voluntarily recalled eggs in cartons dated from June 1 through Sept. 5. State officials said about 1,800 hens are affected, and genetically linked illnesses also have been found in other states.

The eggs, labeled “Grade A Pasture Raised Organic Eggs,” were sold at farmers markets and stores in southern and central Vermont, including markets or retailers in Londonderry, Ludlow, Putney, Woodstock, Windsor, Reading, Brownsville, Westminster West, East Dummerston and Springfield.

The farm has agreed not to sell or distribute chicken eggs until state agriculture officials determine the Salmonella Enteritidis strain no longer poses a public-health threat. Consumers with recalled eggs are being told not to eat them and to put them in the trash rather than a compost pile. Refrigerators, containers and other surfaces that may have touched the eggs should be washed with hot, soapy water or cleaned in a dishwasher.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection most often marked by diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Symptoms generally begin six hours to six days after exposure and last four to seven days. Most people recover without treatment, but severe diarrhea can cause dehydration and hospitalization. Babies, adults 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk of severe illness.

In some cases, the infection can spread beyond the intestines into the bloodstream, bones, joints or other organs. A small number of patients develop reactive arthritis, which can cause joint pain lasting months or years. The CDC recommends contacting a doctor for diarrhea or vomiting lasting more than two days, bloody stool, fever above 102 degrees or signs of dehydration.

Salmonella is named after Daniel Elmer Salmon, an American veterinary surgeon who studied animal diseases. The actual discoverer of Salmonella was Salmon’s assistant, an Albany NY researcher named Theobald Smith.  

Salmonella is not new to Vermont. State records show 625 cases of salmonellosis were reported from 2011 through 2015. Of those, 59 were associated with contact with live poultry, and children younger than 10 accounted for 41% of the poultry-related cases.

Vermonters have also been caught up in several national outbreaks tied to backyard chickens and ducks. Four Vermont cases were counted in a 2018 multistate backyard-poultry outbreak, 19 in similar outbreaks in 2019 and 17 in the large 2020 outbreak.

The disease has continued to cause serious illness in the state even when cases could not be traced to a single commercial product. Vermont Department of Health testimony to lawmakers last year reported 202 hospitalizations involving salmonellosis between January 2015 and April 2025. The department also described two recent Vermont salmonella outbreaks — one linked to a community event, with two confirmed and 14 suspected cases, and another linked to a homemade dinner, with two confirmed and one suspected case.

The current episode appears notable because the source has been traced to eggs produced at a Vermont farm. During the massive nationwide egg recall of 2010, then-Agriculture Secretary Roger Allbee said no Vermont cases of Salmonella Enteritidis had been linked to Vermont-produced eggs.