Salmonella, could this happen to my hens?

[tuffy]

Yikes, with all the recent news about salmonella I am concerned, could this be infecting my birds? The news this morning states that the hens are probably infected, showing no signs of illness and still passing on thru the eggs. Could this happen to us BYC people? My coop is clean, chickens are free ranged during the day, fresh water always, etc, etc. Should we all be concerned? What more can we do to guard against this problen? Surely don't want to sell eggs that would make someone sick!!

 

[cluckcluck42]

From my understanding it is a factory farm problem and has to do with the age of the egg. I hope someone can explain it better, but I read on here the other day that the bacteria lives in the white of the egg and when the egg gets old it gets into the yolk, which is so nutrient rich that the bacteria flourish there.

I would not be worried about my own eggs at all, but I would be interested to know if there is any reason to be concerned because people ask me about it sometimes. One friend won't eat our eggs or meat because they are sure they will get salmonella or ecoli. These are not typical backyard flock problems, but corporate flock problems. Properly tended herds tend to not have the same diseases going rampant, which is common with overcrowded and stressed birds.

 

[speckledhen]

Use good biosecurity to prevent an outbreak. The salmonella is what Pullorum is, what NPIP tests for. The chicken passes it through the egg if they are infected, as I understand it.

Read here: http://www.safe-poultry.com/PullorumDisease.asp


From the article:

Salmonella Pullorum

Pullorum disease is spread from infected parent birds via the egg to the chick. Infected chicks spread the disease laterally in the hatchery.

Treatment and control

* Antibiotic treatment not recommended as birds may become carriers.
* Control is usually by testing and the removal of infected birds.​

 

[Glenbogel06]

According to that website Salmonella Pullorum is NOT the salmonella we get from eating foods. It is a "host specific" disease. The kinds of food borne salmonella, they hypothesize, became prevalent in the 1980's because of the void left when salmonella pullorum and another type of salmonella were being eradicated. Very interesting!!!