Soldiers who like duck eggs had better restrain their appetites when they invade Europe or the Dutch East Indies. Duck eggs often contain a variety of Salmonella —bacteria which cause paratyphoid fevers and intestinal disorders.
Many European duck eggs are infected. About a third of the ducks in The Netherlands are carriers of Salmonella. According to Dutch law, duck eggs cannot be used in commercial preparation of food or drink, nor kept where food is being prepared, since the outsides of eggshells are even more likely to be infected than the yolks. Dutch duck eggs must be stamped: Ducks' eggs—boil for ten minutes. Germany has a similar law.
In The Netherlands East Indies, where native hens do not lay well and where imported chickens soon die from native poultry diseases, the chief egg supply is from penguin ducks (so called because they walk erect). Their eggs are also often infected with Salmonella.
There is only one case of duck-egg Salmonella infection on record in the U.S. (in a Kansas orphanage). Reason: 1) U.S. ducks are usually Salmonella-free; 2) their eggs are seldom eaten.
There was once a salmonellosis epidemic from a pigeon-egg pudding.