Backyard Poultry Forum

I found this article written by the US CDA proven scientific facts.


You can get Salmonella from perfectly normal-looking eggs.

Chicken feces on the outside of egg shells used to be a common cause of Salmonella contamination. To counter that, stringent procedures for cleaning and inspecting eggs were implemented in the 1970s.

However, now there's a new cause for concern.

An epidemic that started in the 1980s and continues today is due to a type of Salmonella that is inside intact grade A eggs with clean shells.

This type of Salmonella can silently infect the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminate the inside of eggs before the shells are formed.


To avoid Salmonella, you should never eat raw or lightly cooked (runny whites or yolks) eggs.

Cooking reduces the number of Salmonella bacteria present in an egg. However, a lightly cooked egg with a runny egg white or yolk still poses a greater risk than a thoroughly cooked egg. Lightly cooked egg whites and yolks have both caused outbreaks of Salmonella infections.

Is there a link to the article Dotti it may not be as relevant to Australia as it is to the USA. USA refrigeration requirements are more stringent than Australia's because of that "in-hen" transmission. But it has not been a known issue in Australia. I believe in commonsense handling but not scaremongering, and that is what our major retailers would take advantage of.

The "you should never eat raw or lightly cooked ... eggs" is like saying we should never eat meat because the UK had a mad cow disease outbreak.

This Huffington link is relevant, more balanced and interesting
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/0 ... 50544.html

We have good quarantine restrictions in Australia for good reasons.

_________________
PC

Thanks PC. Interesting read - another good reason for our border security.

Yes - and the identical OP post 'information' is appearing over all the rubbishbook pages now under a different name - nothing like stirring for the sake of it.

I wish Chooky in Oz would come in now and then with some of his sound explanations and take on things, hope he is going good.

_________________
PC

Hi Dotti,
We are lucky in Australia that we have different Salmonella strains in our chicken population.
Vertical transmission, is exactly what it sounds like - the salmonella is in the chook's system and is transmitted (vertically) down to the egg and ends up inside it the egg because it has colonised areas of the chickens where the eggs are formed.
The reason these salmonellas do that is because they are better able to colonise the chicken's system than other organisms that exist.
However, not every Salmonella is able to transmit vertically via the egg.
The salmonellas we have in the Australian chook population are usually not able to do this. A common salmonella in Aussie chooks is Salmonella Sofia. (Nice name!!! )
These salmonella can still cause diseases, but they infect humans via their contact with faecal matter - not via the egg. (horizontal transmission!!)
The really cool thing about our salmonellas is that they are able to inhibit other strains of salmonella from getting a foothold. Basically, the chickens in the parent's flock already carry the "not vertically transmissible" salmonellas and colonise the young as soon as they make contact. This means the "eco-system" within the young is set up with the organisms that will be their gut bacteria scene for the rest of their lives (unless they get antibiotics). Because salmonella other than the "baddies" are already there, it would take a serious event to get a different one in.
Hence, it is less frequently that we see the vertical transmission thingy here. The use of probiotics is frequently promoted as a way of introducing protective bacteria to the gut and while it works, as long as a contaminated chicken does not come in contact with littlies before they get their gut flora safely organised, it SHOULD still be OK with respect to salmonella. (My opinion, don't quote me...)
As long as we don't let the nasty salmonellas in from other countries, this situation is likely to continue as it has for the last 50 years. AQIS etc are really strict about this, as anyone that has ever tried to import chickens from OS will attest.
I hope that helps.
Ingrid

Thanks for that perspective Ingrid.
It makes me wonder whether commercial producers with their vast flocks and prophylactic treatments for all manner of pests and diseases will one day, having created resistant strains of numerous pests and diseases, appreciate hobbyists for maintaining more benign strains of those pests and diseases.

I wonder too Fuscipes - and actually, it is already a huge problem. The source of many antibotic-resistant organisms in hospital infections these days is meat from antibiotic treated stock. (Please don't quote me. I am a microbiologist, but statements need to be backed up by data and studies before they can be quoted. While those studies do exist, this is just a general forum and we are having a friendly discussion .....)
The organisms get into the food chain and many people carry them around without knowing and without the bugs doing anyone any harm. (Until something happens to their immunity or they pass them on to someone with an immune problem.)

There is a huge push to reduce antibiotic treatments in mass produced meat, especially chicken and pigs and it might even be restricted by now. Not sure about that. Perhaps someone else knows?

While there is a place for 20th and 21st century technology (ha ha), and we all need it sometimes, it is definitely not the only way to be. I think one day all us smaller holders doing things in a more natural way will have something to offer to "industry" as well as local markets. I shall get off my high horse now and go-see whether silkie number 2 has managed to hatch her eggs out.

One thing that rolls around in my head is the question of the fate of pathogenic organisms in wastewater treatment facilities. Not all facilities are functioning to their optimum potential and I wonder what happens when someone comes back from their travels infected with a virulent strain of salmonella not found in Australia? In lagoon based systems I do know that wild ducks will go have a feed in the primary lagoon every time the transfer pumps start up...

Of course for this for this to be the method of transmission of a new strain in Australia we would have to have "all the ducks in a row"

_________________
Cheers, Milo.
I observe in fascination a worm move by peristaltic action through the freshly turned earth as I plant out my chilies. Grasping the Annelid I toss it to the waiting pack of beady-eyed vultures and watch the ensuing mayhem while laughing like a chook!