Salmonella outbreak

[theOEGBman]

Right on, Jim!

Believing everything you hear is rather ignorant if you ask me. I've also been in these barns, I actually work in one and it's nothing like what people believe. You don't mistreat your income... If the hens were treated so terribly they would not lay and you'd make no profit. I could go on for days but I'm already bored with repeating myself.

 

[BC Gal]

From my understanding, the salmonella outbreak that is going on is from the chickens; they have salmonella in their ovaries therefore every egg hatched has salmonella. Here is some info from the CDC:

"Unlike eggborne salmonellosis of past decades, the current epidemic is due to intact and disinfected grade A eggs. Salmonella enteritidis silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed. "

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/salment_g.htm

Is there some way to know if your chickens have this?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

NPIP testing

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/204100.htm and follow the various links

 

[nonseq]

Food Inc is more about the lack of diversity in sources and the overwhelming corporate control of food production. When only a few types of soybean or corn or wheat are grown, that lessens the adaptability of that food crop to withstand negative events such as disease. Current wheat cultivars were bred/engineered to withstand wheat rust. Unfortunately wheat rust has adapted and is now infecting wheat crops in Asia. This can be disastrous as there is little genetic diversity in commercial wheat crops. The same goes for animals and the lack of diversity.

There is also the strong arm tactics that large food producers use on farmers and chicken producers. Which is just wrong.

And then there are the laws that prohibit people from criticizing food producers or taking pictures of fields and animal barns. That's wrong, too.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
What i think it all comes down to is:
We all have our own beliefs of what animal abuse is...
Know what i mean?

So.. its pretty subjective..

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Finn's Mom :

Quote:
Your argument is compelling and logical but your avitar is so Monty Python! (love it)
This is the best understanding of this subject I have encountered. If there is more you can share, please do.

Which part?

Salmonella are intestinal bacteria that cause disease in people and animals. There are numerous strains. Some only effect animals, some effect people.

NPIP (National Poultry Improvement Program) tests birds for Salmonella Pullorum. Pullorum only affects the health of the hen, it can't be passed to people. It causes white diarrhea and an infected flock can have 100% mortality.

Salmonella Enteritidis is one of many, many strains of salmonella that effects people and is the most common one to cause problems in the U.S. It doesn't effect the hens that carry it. They can look perfectly healthy and still be carriers.

Here is a link to the new regulations. I was mistaken in saying that these were new USDA regulations. This actually falls under the FDA regulations. The prevention methods described here can benefit the small flock owner also, particularly the parts about bio-security, rodent and fly control, and storing eggs at the appropriate temperatures.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceCom...ssesSmallEntityComplianceGuides/ucm207507.htm​

 

[Mac in Wisco]

NPIP does have a test and certification for S. Enteritiditis. I wasn't aware of that until reading the document I posted a link to. It requires egg producers to purchase their hens from SE free certified flocks. This isn't the required test for transportation that most folks are familiar with. Typically the only tests required to cross state lines or show at your local fair is the pullorum test.

As I said though, don't confuse salmonella pullorum with SE. Just because your birds test free from pullorum doesn't mean that they aren't carrying other forms of salmonella such as SE.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
What I had read was that the bird carries it in her ovaries, however it could be just one egg every now and then that is infected. Kinda like having a baby when the mother has HIV. There are apparently ways to prevent the child from having it.

I find it most disturing that they knew about this issue back in May. I am not disturbed for myself, of course we have chickens, but what about all the people in the US that thought they had a flu bug??

 

[dntd]

I feel safer with my eggs. I have had milk that was sour a few times even though I had taken out of the stores fridge. You have no idea how the egg has been handled on they way to you, from rolling on dead birds to being left out of a fridge by accident these things happen. Older eggs are at more risk from salmonella,store bought eggs are 6 weeks old or so,mine are day-2 weeks old right from the birds to fridge.

 

[SkyWarrior]

I think the main issue with salmonella isn't that people eat raw eggs (although some do

), but that there's 1. a basic problem with what constitutes a cooked egg and 2. the chance for cross contamination. I don't like overdone eggs, just like I don't like overdone meat -- and yet, if you follow the government's guidelines for what constitutes "safe food," you'll get well done steaks and hamburger and rubbery eggs. I like my eggs "over easy" and don't like them cooked the way the government tells me to cook them.

The second and more important point is the problem with cross contamination. When you handle eggs, do you wash your hands all the time after touching them? What about touching the egg and then touching the handle to the spatula? Do you wash the utensils you use while cooking so that a less cooked portion of the egg doesn't contaminate the cooked portions? You might, but I would bet a lot of people aren't as careful.

Growing up, I don't remember so many food poisoning scares.

I ate eggs sunny side up and rare steaks and never got sick from them. Only when the food was switched from small farms to big agricultural businesses did I notice a problem with the quality of meats and produce. I kept switching stores back when we lived in Colorado in the hopes of getting meat that my husband wouldn't get ill off of. When I moved to Montana, my husband and I pretty much stopped getting food poisoning when I started buying food from local farmers.

I have tried to stay away from big business food stores and to buy organic. I find that organic and local food tastes better, is fresher, and we're less likely to have problems with it. I understand the need for large food distribution systems and the need to feed a large number of people, but the engineer in me is frustrated over our agricultural systems' single points of failure which puts the entire country at risk when something goes wrong.

I don't have an answer for the world, but I do have an answer for myself -- and that is my own chickens.