Originally Posted by penguinsix:
Eggs in the US are washed at the farm (by law) which has the effect of removing the outer bloom, or the 'cuticle'. The cuticle protects the egg from bacteria entering through pores in the shell. This washing is designed to remove the bacteria that can be present during the laying process or from sitting in the nest before collection, but also has the result of making the egg shells more porus and subject to bacterial infection during shipping and storage. Therefore, with US eggs, it is recommended that they stay refridgerated from the farm all the way to the time you cook them in an effort to minimize bacterial growth.
Eggs from other nations may not have had the cuticle removed and thus might have more natural protection against bacteria, though may still have bacteria present on the shell from the laying and storage process (how clean is a chicken nest?). You can leave these unrefridgerated, but I have seen some nations have egg instructions saying something like "keeps 4 weeks unrefridgerated or 8 weeks refridgerated" or numbers to that effect). With the heat, humidity, and general hygenie of some wet markets, I would probably pick my eggs carefully too.
I guess it poses another question: do you wash your eggs before cracking them open?
UPDATE: This is an interesting answer to that question, should eggs be washed. There are risks to washing and risks to not washing.
http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multim...fsf_29_01.html
I should note that while some countries do not "require" eggs to be refridgerated, many of them do actually "recommend" it. In several of the documents on the HK Food Safety site and the World Health Organization they recommend food processors / restaurants keep eggs at temperatures under 10c, though they are silent as to individual buyers. Also interesting to note that in a study a few years ago about 1/3 of the salmonella cases in Hong Kong came from eggs.