Gnu - I sometimes temporarily forget that that Mudcat spans the World, and what happens in one country isn't always the same as in other places. In 1988 a British politician made a public statement that "most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella". She was rapidly sacked, presumably because the statement was true, and Tory politicians are only allowed to lie to us.
The result of that statement, and the scandal that followed it, was eventually that all UK chickens are immunised against Salmonella, so eggs are much safer than at that time. British immunised eggs all are ink stamped with a lion. Eggs imported to Britain from other countries do not bear the lion stamp, and may not be salmonella free.
Quack!
Geoff.