CA Cedergren outside Mönsterås is one of the country's largest egg producers.
It is the third year in a row that the farm needs to cull hundreds of thousands of chickens, this time due to a suspected salmonella outbreak.
- Last year we had a fire, and the year before that it was bird flu.
We're working on it, but it's tragic when things like this happen.
They are live animals and anything can happen, says Maud Cedergren, operations manager at CA Cedergren.
The eggs that are now being recalled by Axfood are Garant eggs, free-range indoor XL, 6-pack, with a best before date of 2023-01-26.
- We work according to the authorities' regulations and follow the instructions we have received, says Maud Cedergren.
Sales stopped
On Tuesday, Coop recalled a batch of eggs on the grounds that the goods may contain salmonella.
The recall concerns Coop Egg Free-range 12-pack, Coop Egg Free-range 24-pack and Xtra Egg Free-range 15-pack with three different best-before dates.
"During a routine check, the supplier of the eggs has discovered salmonella in the stable environment in one of the stables where the eggs have been laid," Axfood announces in a press release.
The eggs have, to a limited extent, been sold in several of the chain's stores, but sales have now been stopped.
The infection isolated
Katharina Gielen, head of infection control at the Swedish Agency for Agriculture, says that the authority was informed on Monday that the egg supplier CA Cedergren has discovered salmonella in the stable environment where the eggs have been laid during a routine check.
- It's about two departments in a stable with approximately 165,000 animals, that's where you could isolate it.
So the main part of the farm is not affected, says Gielen to SVT Nyheter and explains the routine in this type of event:
- Then we go in and barricade, we make decisions about culling and it must then be cleaned, emptied of manure and so on.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that the animals have to be euthanized.
Responsibility for the egg recall itself lies with the Swedish Food Agency.
ARCHIVE: Cedergren was forced to kill 1.3 million chickens in 2021, after a huge outbreak of bird flu.
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Around 80 people worked to remove the dead hens from the barns in 2021. Photo: Erik Arenius/Jordbruksverket