In England and Wales, the emergence of Salmonella

enterica serovar Enteritidis resulted in the largest and most persistent epidemic of foodborne infection attributable to a single subtype of any pathogen since systematic national microbiological surveillance was established. We reviewed 67 years of surveillance data to examine the features, un-derlying causes, and overall effects of S. enterica ser. En-teritidis. The epidemic was associated with the consumption of contaminated chicken meat and eggs, and a decline in the number of infections began after the adoption of vacci-nation and other measures in production and distribution of chicken meat and eggs. We estimate that>525,000 persons became ill during the course of the epidemic, which caused a total of 6,750,000 days of illness, 27,000 hospitalizations, and 2,000 deaths. Measures undertaken to control the epi-demic have resulted in a major reduction in foodborne dis-ease in England and Wales. A pandemic of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis infection was recognized by epidemiologists in the United States in the late 1970s; a 6-fold rise in these in-fections was observed in northeastern United States dur-ing 1976–1986 (1). A review of outbreak investigations re-vealed that 27 (77%) of 35 outbreaks were associated with the consumption of foods containing grade A eggs (1). The most commonly reported phage types were SE8, SE13, and SE13a. In 1990, the World Health Organization reviewed Salmonella surveillance data for 1979–1987 and found that isolation rates for S. enterica ser. Enteritidis had increased in 24 of the 35 nations that provided data. Increases were recorded in countries from every continent except Asia (2). Evidence from outbreak investigations in Spain, Hungary