The salmonella was found late last week during a regular veterinary department inspection at the poultry farm, according to Cyprus Mail.

Deputy head of Health Services, Christos Christou, said: "The veterinary services after making their checks informed the Health Services that the chicken faeces at an egg production business tested positive for a particular strain of salmonella thought to be considerably pathogenic."

The name of the egg production farm has not been released. Mr Christou stressed that the health services only do this when it is "absolutely necessary".

So far, checks have not been carried out on the eggs from the farm but it is believed that they are likely to test positive for the bacteria.

On Friday (8 April), the authorities warned the public not to consume eggs from the particular unit. The batch is designated 3CY4404.03, with a production date up until 8 April 2011.

The 8,000 chickens were destroyed on Saturday (9 April).

According to Mr Christou the withdrawal of the eggs from the market is the responsibility of the producer. "We have asked for a distribution list and we have crews who will check if the producer has complied with the withdrawal of the eggs from the market," said Mr Christou.

"We just supervise to what extent he has complied."

Furious, the Cyprus Consumers' and Quality of Life Union called for the name of the producer to be made public so people could just avoid the brand instead having to check batch numbers and dates.

According to Cyprus Mail, the union said other producers would also be affected as people would avoid all egg purchases. Some said sales were already down.

The union said that since the warning was issued, their phones have been ringing off the hook because people do not know or remember, the batch number or locate it on egg cartons.