KUALA LUMPUR: Lay Hong Bhd will offer full cooperation and compliance with the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) in Malaysia and formulate plans to strengthen farm control practices and monitoring following the detection of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in eggs exported from one of its farms in Jeram, Selangor.

"Our priority is the safety of our customers. We are currently working closely with the Department of Veterinary and Services to investigate and monitor the alleged farm related to export Salmonella detection," said Datuk Yap Chor How, executive director of the integrated livestock farming company.

The Group has agreed with DVS to suspend Jeram 1 farm, from which the production is primarily exported to Singapore.

"The Jeram 1 farm is currently suspended from both the domestic and export market pending the completion of the investigation by DVS," he said in a statement here, today.

Lay Hong assured that no eggs will be sold from Jeram 1 farm and that the Group will only resume the supply of eggs from this farm once the investigation is completed.

At the moment, all other farms in Jeram (Jeram farms 2-6) have been tested negative for Salmonella, and these farms are divided into smaller satellite farms and separated from one another physically despite being located in Jeram.

"Each of these satellite farm has its functioning feeding and grading equipment to mitigate cross-contamination between farms. All of these mitigating factors have been in place for years to ensure our supply of eggs is not entirely disrupted if one of our farms is affected by contamination. This preparation has enabled us to continue to supply our eggs from other farms responsibly to our customers," Yap said.

He said Lay Hong will strengthen the company's farming process and is confident that it can overcome this incident with stronger controls and monitoring in the future.

Yesterday, four importers in Singapore have been directed to recall eggs from Lay Hong's layer farm in Jeram, following the detection of the presence of SE in the product that may cause foodborne illness if food is consumed raw or undercooked.

-- BERNAMA