FDA document from review of egg farm in Iowa

[kelliepulido]

ok I was watching the cnn report things they found;flies,rodents,wild birds flying in and out,manure. Sooooo I scrap my coop everyday try to anyways throw out the soiled straw goes out into a pile in the outside run,and I use DE,I sweep my barn but I still have manure on the roosts 1m after daily chores,I still have flies and manure,birds fly in and out the barn is open all year,and I have mice the chickens actually eat baby mice when found. My hens have a 60ft,x 60ft run and a 13ftx20ft indoor coop and in the bantam coop they free range sooo am I in the same boat?

 

[PineappleMama]

Quote:
Well according to the 4/10 (coop/run) space recommendations you could have 65 hens in that coop and 360 in that run and they'd be comfy... in that same coop space a commercial farm would cram 260+ birds.

Besides you actually CARE about your birds and their environment... if you didn't you wouldn't have asked the question. That alone divides you from the commercial vultures. N'mind your actual practices of keeping you pens clean, using DE, etc.

You sound like a great chickie parent to me.

I only wish I could have a run that size... that thing is bigger than our house... and at 3600sf is almost larger than 3700ish sf lot! Your chickens have more elbow room than us four humans! Lucky ducks.

 

[kelliepulido]

thanks for the reply.I really pride myself and the condition of my birds and coop and the fact that I don't use any chemicals,antibiotics etc.all natural.I have about 40 in my big campus and 30 in the smaller campus but those birds can free range so even though their coop is smaller they have 24x7 full outdoors to run around.The smaller coop is my bantam set up..

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
And yet someone from FDA inspected this and stamped it good allowed them to sell eggs from here this is the part that worries me the gov folks approved it.

 

[Randy]

I can't believe everyone is so suprised that there was chicken poop in a chicken barn. One this is for sure, if they start making them clean it out every day our country eggs are going to be even in more demand because cheap eggs in the store will be a thing of the past. That is, of course, if the government doesn't forbid us from selling eggs at all.

 

[nonseq]

Quote:
And yet someone from FDA inspected this and stamped it good allowed them to sell eggs from here this is the part that worries me the gov folks approved it.

From what I can tell FDA doesn't get involved unless there is a complaint. IA Dept of AG would have handled the permit process. From looking at OH's permit process for agribusiness, it looks like ODA reviews the plans and determines if the permit should be issued, but unless there is a complaint, they don't go back again until the permit needs to be renewed. And if you read my PP, you'll see that DeCoster operates here in OH, and ODA refused him permits, but he sued and was granted permits to operate.

 

[kelliepulido]

I guess what they found manure,flies,birds and rodents seems like common things in all barns

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
And yet someone from FDA inspected this and stamped it good allowed them to sell eggs from here this is the part that worries me the gov folks approved it.

Prior to this outbreak NO ONE HAD TESTED EITHER OF THESE TWO PLANTS, not the FDA or the USDA. Sure, there were citations and findings about illegal work conditions, but no one from either agency had actually tested the feed, the birds, or the eggs. The plants were not members of the NPIP which also would have found the salmonella.

Please don't spread misinformation - no one inspected and then stamped these plants as 'good'. They slipped under the radar because the rules did not call for routine inspections.

Part of the problem was that the USDA was solely responsible for chickens and the chicken houses, while the FDA was solely in charge of the eggs when they come out and the feed that comes in. New rules have changed that, and we are seeing the results of that partnership in this inspection report.

“Clearly the observations here reflect significant deviations from what’s expected,” said Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for food for the F.D.A.

Mr. Taylor said that in response to the outbreak and recall, F.D.A. inspectors would visit all of the 600 major egg-producing facilities in the country over the next 15 months. Those farms, with 50,000 or more hens each, represent about 80 percent of nationwide egg production.

With implementation of the new egg safety laws, the FDA says as many as 79,000 illnesses and 30 deaths related to contaminated egg consumption may be avoided. The new laws went into effect on July 9, 2010. Smaller egg producers (less than 50,000 but at least 3,000 laying hens) have an additional two years to comply with the new rules.​

 

[alicefelldown]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20014585-10391695.html

So who was inspecting the farm? No one.

The Iowa Agriculture Agency told CBS News their inspectors conducted a 15 minute "courtesy" annual inspection in mid April but made "no observations". The inspection report notes that a full inspection was not necessary because there was a "full time USDA inspector on site".

But the USDA tells CBS News that what the state agriculture agency describes as a "full time USDA inspector" was actually a grader - a USDA employee responsible for examining shell and yolk quality and looking for shell cracks - not looking for salmonella. USDA graders are not even permitted to walk through the henhouse.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/nationworld/egg-farms-violated-standards-fda-says_2010-08-31.html

The agency has not traditionally inspected egg farms until there has been a problem. The FDA has said it has not inspected either of the two Iowa farms, even though the owners of Wright County Egg have a long history of health, safety, environmental and immigration violations.

The FDA will now inspect all of the nation's largest farms by the end of next year, the Obama administration announced last week.​

 

[nonseq]

alicefelldown - That's what I was saying.

FDA/USDA don't do inspections. Or didn't. Looks like they will be now. The STATE is responsible for regulating industries within that state.