Salmonella outbreak 2018

[Bonniebooboo]

https://www.usnews.com/news/healthi...d-chickens-are-spreading-salmonella-to-people
Here is the link to what I read. I know other things can give it to you as well. Just in these cases folks reported handling chickens week prior to getting sick.
Just putting it out there. I have had chickens for 30 plus years and we have not had salmonella, not saying we won't/can't though. Just trying to be safe. I don't raise snakes, I have handled snakes, I dispatch them when caught in chicken coop, and wear gloves then or really wash hands good.

This was mainly about the outbreak with chickens/equipment, but thank you for the insite into the reptiles.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

That. Was. Sad! Poor birds!

Try to wrap your head around of how much that equipment and technology costs to run that industry.
There are 361,926 members on BYC (some overseas I know) and the #'s grow daily. That only counts members who joined. Backyard poultry is a niche. A very trending and exploding phenomenon which is hurting the major providers of poultry products-- and it is growing and growing. Suburbs have chickens all over now.
It costs them so much to produce their eggs and now 100's of thousands of people stopped buying them. Not counting the folks we sell them to because they are wanting an alternative to industry eggs and the demand is growing as well..
Micro brewery's are competing with big business as well- slapping them hard. Monopolies don't like competition and will go to great lengths to protect their interests. Our population has become less savoy these last few years and we are easily influenced.
Just wash your hands, prepare your food correctly. CLEAN YOUR CHICKEN HOUSES.

 

[Bonniebooboo]

Lobbyists from special interests throw money at law makers and other Government agencies to release false documents and spread lies. It takes money to make money. They have millions of $ invested in the companies and we only have a bag of feed to pay for here and there. The egg industry is hurting because so many Americans have an egg factory in their backyard.
Also eggs sold a Walmart and other big chains are sold BELOW COST, to get you shopping in their stores for higher value items.
Lobbyists don't care about the truth. They care about their paychecks.
This video is from the industry that has it in their interests to spread lies to SCARE citizens not to raise their own eggs and continue to be dependent on big business to feed you.

Quite an interesting video. I saw it as very informative on how they do it. I always wondered how they did so many. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Zinjifrah]

Try to wrap your head around of how much that equipment and technology costs to run that industry.
There are 361,926 members on BYC (some overseas I know) and the #'s grow daily. That only counts members who joined. Backyard poultry is a niche. A very trending and exploding phenomenon which is hurting the major providers of poultry products-- and it is growing and growing. Suburbs have chickens all over now.
It costs them so much to produce their eggs and now 100's of thousands of people stopped buying them. Not counting the folks we sell them to because they are wanting an alternative to industry eggs and the demand is growing as well..
Micro brewery's are competing with big business as well- slapping them hard. Monopolies don't like competition and will go to great lengths to protect their interests. Our population has become less savoy these last few years and we are easily influenced.
Just wash your hands, prepare your food correctly. CLEAN YOUR CHICKEN HOUSES.

Marvelous look into big industry control of the market - it's not about chickens in any way, but it's still an eye-opener regarding how much pressure big industry can bring to bear: the movie Tucker.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096316/

 

[Chelle'sChics]

Let's not forget the massive egg recall from grocery stores just this past spring. I think for the most part, us backyard chicken keepers are hypersensitive about contamination which causes us to be very careful. To put it in perspective, who among us wants to give family and friends an illness?
I am positive that the upswing in people keeping chickens likely cuts into the bottom line of the commercial industry.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

So, this report is interesting but may be misleading.
First, this isn't a shocking number. Now that the OP has double-checked their numbers and given the link, it says that "between Feb. 15 and June 21 of this year.... 212 people in 44 states had been infected". But if this trend continues (212 people in 44 states every 3 months) nation-wide the number would be less than 900 in a year. Since the count begins in february, not january, it doesn't even take deep cold months into account when salmonella infections from handling chickens and their equipment are less likely. The article states that last year we had 1,120 cases, a record high. That means the current number of salmonella cases is going DOWN from there, not up.

(I will admit, it's much higher than in, say, 2012 when back yard keeping was less and really just starting and the number was 330ish. https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/live-poultry-05-12/index.html)

It also does confirm that;
"Of those sick, 72 percent of people told the CDC that they had contact with chicks or ducklings in the week before their illnesses started", which probably means that those cases WERE backyard poultry related... But...
"Each year in the U.S., about 1.2 million people are infected and 450 die from salmonella. Food is the source of about 1 million salmonella illnesses and 380 deaths each year."
So... Around 1000 cases a year, out of 1,200,000 are from back yard poultry, not from eating their eggs but DIRECT handling of the birds, of which they can only confirm a link to 72% of cases...

Certainly we can do better, as a community, to learn and establish better practices. We can do things like limit immune compromised individuals around our birds, use the vaccines (which they use in Europe with overwhelming success!) and remember to practice good hygiene, especially around immune compromised individuals. We can even do things like feed certain supplements to try to reduce the incidence of salmonella in your chickens.
This matters because on a per-capita basis we have higher incidents of illness.

But over-all backyard chicken illnesses are a drop in the bucket compared to other sources.
So the claim that "Backyard Chickens Are Spreading Salmonella to People", which is the title of the article, may be technically accurate but is misleading in it's tone and statement. And while I can understand addressing this issue (an increase of 300-400% of cases in 6 years is nothing to sneeze at), I wonder why they aren't also focusing on the rest of the vastly more likely ways to get salmonella more intensely.
I also worry this article seems to emphasize the fact that it's back yard chickens, with very little specific info on how to have safe hygiene practices around chickens that isn't common knowledge. (Don't lets kids handle chickens, wash your hands, don't let them in your house, have chicken shoes, etc.) They don't even TRY to mention the vaccine, for example, or foot covers, how to properly sanitize surfaces in your coop, dietary supplements to naturally reduce incidence of salmonella, etc.

So I would take this seriously, but also with a grain of salt. There's nothing here that will surprise an experienced chicken keeper. We have more people handling chickens now that aren't wearing full disposable suits like many CAFOs have. This is a concern we can address (probably not effectively through the means that they list), but is probably not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things (at least not yet), and likely has more to do with people keeping "pet" chickens, in the house, with toddlers etc. than most back yard flocks for food.

Your eggs and chickens haven't become less safe because of this report. XD Please feel free to keep having your egg nogs and over easy's.

 

[Zinjifrah]

So, this report is interesting but may be misleading.
First, this isn't a shocking number. Now that the OP has double-checked their numbers and given the link, it says that "between Feb. 15 and June 21 of this year.... 212 people in 44 states had been infected". But if this trend continues (212 people in 44 states every 3 months) nation-wide the number would be less than 900 in a year. Since the count begins in february, not january, it doesn't even take deep cold months into account when salmonella infections from handling chickens and their equipment are less likely. The article states that last year we had 1,120 cases, a record high. That means the current number of salmonella cases is going DOWN from there, not up.

(I will admit, it's much higher than in, say, 2012 when back yard keeping was less and really just starting and the number was 330ish. https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/live-poultry-05-12/index.html)

It also does confirm that;
"Of those sick, 72 percent of people told the CDC that they had contact with chicks or ducklings in the week before their illnesses started", which probably means that those cases WERE backyard poultry related... But...
"Each year in the U.S., about 1.2 million people are infected and 450 die from salmonella. Food is the source of about 1 million salmonella illnesses and 380 deaths each year."
So... Around 1000 cases a year, out of 1,200,000 are from back yard poultry, not from eating their eggs but DIRECT handling of the birds, of which they can only confirm a link to 72% of cases...

Certainly we can do better, as a community, to learn and establish better practices. We can do things like limit immune compromised individuals around our birds, use the vaccines (which they use in Europe with overwhelming success!) and remember to practice good hygiene, especially around immune compromised individuals. We can even do things like feed certain supplements to try to reduce the incidence of salmonella in your chickens.
This matters because on a per-capita basis we have higher incidents of illness.

But over-all backyard chicken illnesses are a drop in the bucket compared to other sources.
So the claim that "Backyard Chickens Are Spreading Salmonella to People", which is the title of the article, may be technically accurate but is misleading in it's tone and statement. And while I can understand addressing this issue (an increase of 300-400% of cases in 6 years is nothing to sneeze at), I wonder why they aren't also focusing on the rest of the vastly more likely ways to get salmonella more intensely.
I also worry this article seems to emphasize the fact that it's back yard chickens, with very little specific info on how to have safe hygiene practices around chickens that isn't common knowledge. (Don't lets kids handle chickens, wash your hands, don't let them in your house, have chicken shoes, etc.) They don't even TRY to mention the vaccine, for example, or foot covers, how to properly sanitize surfaces in your coop, dietary supplements to naturally reduce incidence of salmonella, etc.

So I would take this seriously, but also with a grain of salt. We have more people handling chickens now that aren't wearing full disposable suits like many CAFOs have. This is a concern we can address (probably not effectively through the means that they list), but is probably not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. At least not yet.

There's another small factor to take into account, though it's certainly not anything I have statistics on... two, actually. The latter being the increase in overall population, if hard numbers are taken into account, rather than a percentage of the overall population.

The first reason I thought of, though, is from my own personal experience. Twenty-odd years ago, when I got salmonella poisoning - twice, in one year - I never even considered going to the hospital for it. It was just food poisoning. Very unpleasant, but not worth a hospital bill. I told the deli I got the food from, that's it. Now, the serious risks from it are more widely known... and if I got it again, I'd probably go to the hospital, and report where it happened, and how. I would imagine other people are the same. So... is the number of poisonings going up, or just the number that actually get reported?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

That's also a good point. And the fact that people are hyper-aware of chickens = salmonella, they might be more likely to go to the hospital and report it if they know they have been handling birds recently. So there are many factors, and this is nothing to panic about. Just remind yourself of the steps you should be taking to stay healthy and to keep your flock healthy.

 

[Trux]

I just threw my "Ritz & Goldfish" to my pigs..

 

[Trux]

Let's not forget the massive egg recall from grocery stores just this past spring. I think for the most part, us backyard chicken keepers are hypersensitive about contamination which causes us to be very careful. To put it in perspective, who among us wants to give family and friends an illness?
I am positive that the upswing in people keeping chickens likely cuts into the bottom line of the commercial industry.

Bingo!