Hundreds of thousands of eggs pulled from Australian shelves over salmonella concerns

Hundreds of thousands of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves across Australia after five cases of salmonella illness were traced to a farm in the eastern state of Victoria.

Foods Standard Australia New Zealand has recalled eggs from Bridgewater Poultry farm, which are available from the country's largest supermarket chains, with the farm itself going into lockdown.

"There'll be hundreds of thousands of eggs involved, hundreds of thousands of laying hens are involved," Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton told the national broadcaster.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include fever, headache, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, usually appearing within 72 hours of consumption and lasting up to seven days.

"We'd just like people to check and if they do have any of these eggs they should return them or throw them out to avoid any risk of food poisoning," Sutton said.

Australians consume around 17 million eggs per day and health authorities have warned that while other eggs are safe to consume they should always be cooked through to avoid risk of contamination.