Egg companies to testify before Congress

[September 22, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress is planning to hear from the heads of two Iowa egg farms linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened up to 1,600 people.

Austin "Jack" DeCoster of Wright County Egg and Orland Bethel of Hillandale Farms are scheduled to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Wednesday. Members of the panel have asked the two men to come prepared to discuss the filthy conditions found at their farms.

An FDA investigation found towers of manure and bug and rodent infestations at the farms, and an Energy and Commerce Committee investigation found that the companies had received hundreds of positive results for salmonella in the two years before the outbreak this summer.

[Associated Press; By MARY CLARE JALONICK]

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