Backyard chicken coops are on the rise and in many ways that is a good thing. However, one negative with this is that some chickens can carry various microbes that can make people sick and sometimes those microbes get to people and make them sick. CNN has a new story on the topic that may …
This paper may be of interest to some. Basically, the authors compared Salmonella levels in outdoor vs. indoor housing for chickens. The main push behind this appears to be the growing trend for having more outdoor housing for chickens and the question of whether or not that leads to higher levels of pathogens. See …
So I feel like this shouldn’t need to be said… but clearly it does. Don’t kiss chickens or bring them into your bedroom. Should my opinion not carry enough weight, simply check out this new report from the CDC “Outbreaks of Human Salmonella Infections Associated with Live Poultry, United States, 1990—2014”. Abstract below. Major highlights …
Microbes in the house Seasonal Dynamics of the Airborne Bacterial Community and Selected Viruses in a Children’s Daycare Center – Aaron J. Prussin II – PLOS ONE (OA) We have investigated the microbial community of the air in a daycare center, including seasonal dynamics in the bacterial community and the presence of specific viral pathogens. …
After eight years, California’s Proposition 2 goes into effect in 2015. NPR’s Forum did a program on this today. Prop. 2 is the California law to allow egg-laying chickens enough space to stand up, turn around and stretch their legs. Opponents of the law claim that the eggs will get pooped on with the new space guidelines. On the other …
Well this is very interesting. The FDA has announced a competition: U.S. Food and Drug Administration | 2014 Food Safety Challenge. From their site Summary While the American food supply is among the safest in the world, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 in 6 Americans is sickened by foodborne illness …
Just came across this article entitled “Rainwater harvesting tanks enable spread of dangerous pathogens, study shows”. The article describes a fairly straightforward set of findings from rainwater storage tanks in South Africa. Researchers found Legionella, Klebsiella, Giardia, Salmonella, and Yersinia. Not a friendly-sounding list of bugs. However, I have the usual set of issues with …
US news just published an article, Disinfectants Can’t Defeat Salmonella in Food-Processing Plants: Study, discussing the inability of currently used disinfectants to eradicate or even reduce viable counts of Salmonella. The full article, Commonly used disinfectants fail to eradicate Salmonella enterica biofilm from food contact surface materials, is located behind a paywall in the Journal of Applied and Environmental Microbiology …
Interesting article from a couple days ago talking about the procedures used to assess salmonella contamination in poultry processing plants and some of the issues therein. Not recommended reading if you’re having chicken for dinner anytime soon. h/t to Paula for sending us the link to this article.