52 BULLETIN 51, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Tablk 21. — Effi/.s with turbiditjj in thick icldte. 

 INDIVIDUAL EGGS. 



Sample 

 No. 



Source. 



Date of 



collec- 

 tion. 



Total number of 

 bacteria per 

 gram on plain 

 agar incubated 

 at— 



Number 



of gas- 

 producing 

 bacteria 

 per gram 

 in lactose 

 bile. 



Gelatin 

 liquefy- 

 ing or- 

 ganisms 

 per 

 gram. 



Size of 

 sample. 



Description. 





20° C. 



37° C. 





4571 



D3 



D3 

 D3 



1912. 

 June IS 



June 19 

 June 22 



150 



43,500 

 150 



650 



36, 500 

 100 







100 

 





Pounds. 



Leaking shell; normal 



457.5 



2,000 





yoUc; no odor. 

 Do. 



45S7 





Opened aseptically. 









SMALL SAMPLES. 



4598 

 4611 



E4 

 E4 

 E4 



June 24 

 June 25 

 June 27 



120,000 



16,000 



290,000 



32,000 



500 



14,000 



10 

 



10 



100,000 



4 



1.5 



1 



Cracked eggs; normal 

 ■ yolk; good odor. 

 Cracked eggs and sec- 



4624 



10,000 



onds; good odor. 

 Dirty eggs; good odor. 



EGGS HAVING WHITE PARTIALLY COAGULATED BY HEAT. 



Breaking-stock eggs are occasionally found with contents which 

 present the appearance of soft-boilecl eggs. They probably had been 

 dipped in hot water to prevent their use 'for hatcliing when they 

 had been purchased, ostensibly for food purposes. The heat of sum- 

 mer is also, under some circumstances, sufficiently great to cause the 

 albumen of eggs to partially coagulate, thus giving it a clouded ap- 

 pearance. For instance, an egg laid on a haystack exposed to the 

 direct rays of the sun becomes partially cooked and has the ap- 

 pearance of an egg which has been, in boiling water about a minute. 

 A bacterial examination of two such eggs showed them to be prac- 

 tically free from organisms. 



EGGS HAVING ENTIRE WHITE TURBID. 



Bacterial growth in an egg may cause cloudiness in the albumen 

 analogous to that caused by the growth of bacteria in laboratory 

 media. The eggs mayor may not have an odor. Eggs with a charac- 

 teristic sour odor (see p. 61) have, almost invariably, a turbid al- 

 bumen. An exammation of four eggs with a clouded white showed 

 (Table 22) that their bacterial content varied between 15,000 and 

 150,000,000 per gram. The two eggs with the high counts had an 

 abnormal odor, which fact was indicative of the presence of large 

 numbers of bacteria. 



