Re: feed causing salmonella in chickens and their eggs.

[crazyhen]

I went to the feed store and they were talking about the salmonella problem. There was an inspecter there and he said one rat could contaminate all the feed if he gets urine or feces in the bag. So my feed store was told to throw away any broken or stained bags.
When we shop we should look for partial bags and not use them or broken bags or urine stained ones too. Thats a good idea anyway.Gloria Jean

 

[Beekissed]

Well, I guess that would cause a problem for people who leave feed out for their chickens 24/7, wouldn't it?

How do they know that mice and/or rats are not peeing and dropping feces while they sample the feed? The hens could be eating those nice little droppings before anyone discovered them.

 

[Organics North]

Honestly I feel we are barking up the wrong tree if we start worrying about rat or mice feces getting on chicken feed. Where there is animal feed their are rats and mice. Every farm in the world has rodents at some level. So to most households.. No rodents at an elevator or feed mill, or the grain room?

Of course rats have been leaving feces on feed since man started to domesticate livestock...

Look to the chickens and conditions in which they are raised. They are weak and stressed in extremely unnatural conditions. They are just short of being clones. Again, I personally feel the reason they are carrying salmonella is this.

I bet I could take that same contaminated feed and feed it to my birds, or your birds and the eggs nor the chickens would be carrying salmonella. How could this be? Think about it.... What do you do differently from the big commercial producers?...

ON

 

[phaethona]

Quote:
I'm a little puzzled....corn is grain. Did you mean grains other than corn? High corn diets for feedlot cattle causes corrosion in the bowel walls~as the outer layer of the kernel is indigestible~ allowing E.coli that would normally only be present in the bowel into the bloodstream. These cows are fed a low dose of broad spectrum antibiotic with their feed and the low doses kill off only the weak bacteria, allowing the stronger, more virulent strains to survive and mutate until they are antibiotic resistant. Corn is also a high sugar diet, which also contributes to a a weakened immune system~hence why diabetics are open to more infection than those who are not. These are the people-killer E.coli. When these people arrive at the hospital for IV antibiotics, the medicine has only a marginal effect, if any, because the E.coli is resistant and people with weakened immune systems die.

You really cannot "dispose"of bacteria unless you have a good immune system that can form antibodies against pathogenic invaders. Just having bowel movements does not move the bacteria out of the body.

brainfart

(it's friday, right?)

I meant grass-fed. I think it was something about rotating cattle out to pasture causing a shift in the amount of pathogens, and the length of time they spend in the intestinal tract, as well as increased antibodies to fight them off.

but I could have that all wrong...that's why I'm not a farmer...

I guess I was wondering if the same scenario could be true in chickens, if they have more immunity to pathogens if allowed to free range in combination with a corn-based diet

 

[phaethona]

Quote:
So I guess I shouldn't worry that my chickens were eating a mouse the other day?!

 

[Beekissed]

I guess I was wondering if the same scenario could be true in chickens, if they have more immunity to pathogens if allowed to free range in combination with a corn-based diet

Truly free ranged chickens are definitely more healthy than there penned counterparts, especially more so than CAFO chickens.

Every animal is healthier consuming the diet they were designed to consume....cows, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, chickens....you name it. Grains of some kind are in all ruminant's and bird's diets and also in carnivorous diets, to a smaller degree. But not corn. Corn is not a grass that grows naturally in the wild...at least not the corn we know today and that is being fed to our livestock. And, no, animals did not automatically adapt to these kinds of feeds just because we've been feeding them all these years.

A diet that has variety that formulated feeds cannot match is always optimal for animals.​

 

[crosbygroup]

Quote:
Great post!

It already has bitten us on the butt - that is why we now have super bugs (antibiotic resistant bacteria)

The constant feeding of antibiotics to livestock is endangering all of us. The first example of this I remember reading/hearing about was the E. coli outbreak in the Jack in a Box hamburgers. Several children died. Yes, the meat was undercooked, but the bacteria was not just normal E. coli it was a super bug that was extremely virulent and antibiotic resistant. The same thing happens with the chickens raised for meat and the egg industry. *The overcrowding increases the chance of bacterial infection so they are fed antibiotics, the bacteria are now being "bred/selected" to be antibiotic resistant. Then you need stronger antibiotics, then you get stronger bacteria and repeat from *

 

[Amyable]

Quote:
Pastured cattle are healthier than those fed a grain-based diet. Cows are ruminants, they are designed to eat grasses. I have no doubt the same would apply to chickens, or any other animal - they are at their optimal health when allowed to eat diets their bodies are designed to eat.

From an article on the EatWild website: http://www.eatwild.com/foodsafety.html
Work conducted at Cornell University by Russell and Diez-Gonzalez in the late 1990s showed that cattle that were fed hay had far fewer E. coli than when they were fed a standard feedlot diet based on grain. In addition, the two researchers conducted a test tube study showing that E. coli from grass-fed cattle is more likely to be killed by the natural acidity of our digestive tract and therefore might be less likely to survive and make us ill.
The reason for the greater persistence of E. coli from grain-fed cattle, the researchers speculated, is that feeding grain to cattle makes their digestive tracts abnormally acidic. Over time, the E. coli in their systems become acclimated to this acid environment. When we ingest them, a high percentage will survive the acid shock of our digestive juices. By contrast, few E. coli from grass-fed cattle will survive because they have not become acid-resistant.

 

[ga_goat]

I really can't address how or why the company had an outbreak ,, all I can say about it is the demand and price of my 'homegrown' eggs increased . gee ,,, could that be a silver lining ?????

 

[chknmama]

I read somewhere that the first farm connected to the recall had a history of violations and deplorable conditions. One of the problems with the FDA is they have no teeth as an agency. They do not have the power to call mandatory recalls this was a "voluntary recall" they can site violators but do not have power to shut down businesses of even gross violators of health and safety regulations. Unfortunatly the FDA is often more on the side of industry than they are a consumer protection agency.