Food Safety article in BYP

[rbaker0345]

I just wanted to adress an issue that I have with an article in the most recent BYP magazine which I am sure most of you get.

I am a molecular/cellular biologist, I have a degree in microbiology and I would just like everyone to know that there is a huge difference between the salmonella that grows in our free range, backyard chickens raised on a variety of foods and scraps and those wretched, pathetic industrially raised chickens raised on a concentrated feed, never allowed to even see a blade of grass. That artificial, corn and by-product based diet acidifies the gut of livestock including poultry, swine and cattle. This acidic environment promotes the growth of hemorrhagic or fatal strains of what would be perfectly benign bacteria. The free ranged, backyard chickens that most of us are humane enough to raise are fairly harmless to humans with normal immune systems. Do not be afraid to let your kids handle those ducklings, chickens or baby chicks. Or, for that matter, don't worry about relatives of chickens such as turtles, lizards, snakes and amphibians.

I have free range chickens and I no longer worry about licking the mixing beaters after I make chocolate chip cookies. I would worry about this with commercially produced eggs, but not my healthy chickens with normal gut flora.

Don't get into over-using antibacterial soaps, this promotes antibiotic resistance in normally benign bacteria. Use soap and plenty of running water.

 

[caspernc]

Very well said!

 

[donrae]

Thank you! I just have to sigh and pass over most of the germophobe threads.........hand sanitizer after getting close to the birds, sanitizing the coop every month, eggs that don't go directly from the vent to the fridge are poison, you get the drift. My little bit of immunology (I'm an RN) gave me the impression if you don't give your immune system something to do, it's quite likely to turn on YOU!

 

[Oregon Blues]

I know my own flock. I know their health, how they are handled, how the eggs are handled. So I will use my own eggs raw in things like mayonnaise and licking the cake batter off the bowl.

I do not do that with commercial eggs, just because I don't know enough about them. I very much doubt that they are normally dangerous.

Still, even with home flocks, do not eat the chicken poop. That means washing your hands after you or the children handle the birds and nests, or change the duck pond water. That's not different than washing your hands after using the toilet. Soap and water should do the trick just fine.

 

[gale65]

Someone on this board's child got salmonella poisoning and got pretty sick after handling the chicks. The mother said the child may have put her hands in her mouth and let's face it, baby chicks get poop on them. Also I guess I'm not humane since my chickens don't free-range. They're in a pen since otherwise they'd be eaten by my dog, possibly my cats, and any wildlife that comes around.

 

[SmokinChick]

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2004/040920.htm
Free Range organic chicken in not much better then factory birds!

To the OP, please elaborate on the difference between Salmonella in our birds and the other birds.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Free-range, organic chickens does not mean that the chicken ran around outside all day looking for bugs to eat. I would like to know more info about how the chickens were raised other than being sold in the store as free-range, organic.

IMHO, anytime that you have a high density of living organisms crammed into a small area you are going to have issues.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

The linked article from Poultry Science posts some evidence that at least those chickens and even pigs fed fermented feed have fewer cases of salmonella. Which is one of many reasons that I use fermented feed.

http://www.poultryscience.org/ps/paperpdfs/03/p0340603.pdf