In the real world news today Thurs, November 29 2018

[greybeard]

So what you're trying to say is that the higher powers that be are saying that much of the salmonella cases are caused by backyard flocks and because the higher powers that be are saying this many people take it at face value without doing the proper research?

Sounds like how fake news gets spread around. One person shares something and no one does the homework on it so it gets passed around for more people and eventually its right up there with real news.

If you are talking to me, I can assure you that CDC 'does it's homework'. It's not the regulators or public health investigators that are living on the banks of 'da nile'...

Look at some of the pics that have been posted of backyard chicken pens across the web. The pics of children holding and hugging live poultry in some of those pens. The texts describing kids and adults getting 'kisses' from poultry.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Look at some of the pics that have been posted of backyard chicken pens across the web. The pics of children holding and hugging live poultry in some of those pens. The texts describing kids and adults getting 'kisses' from poultry.

This!!

Most would be surprised with how many people kiss their chickens. Or eating while/right after touching chickens. It doesn’t surprise me that NC had the most cases. Lots of crazy chicken people here (I say that nicely!). Backyard flocks are huge here.

Several years ago all our feedstores had to put fence panels around their chick brooders. People were handling chicks and then getting ill. If I remember right, there were several deaths.

A little off topic, but still similar.
I was just at a goat show. So many people are eating snacks while going through touching the animals. Made me crazy.
City slickers petting livestock, and then eating with bare hands.

Our state fair has closed off all livestock from the public. People were getting E. coli from the petting zoo.

 

[greybeard]

This!!

Most would be surprised with how many people kiss their chickens. Or eating while/right after touching chickens. It doesn’t surprise me that NC had the most cases. Lots of crazy chicken people here (I say that nicely!). Backyard flocks are huge here.

Several years ago all our feedstores had to put fence panels around their chick brooders. People were handling chicks and then getting ill. If I remember right, there were several deaths.

A little off topic, but still similar.
I was just at a goat show. So many people are eating snacks while going through touching the animals. Made me crazy.
City slickers petting livestock, and then eating with bare hands.

Our state fair has closed off all livestock from the public. People were getting E. coli from the petting zoo.

This too, will all be written off via some kind of blind rationalization.
The whole thing is rather sad, but if the public comes to the logical conclusion that 'if they don't even care about themselves or their own, what expectation can we have that they would care about us?'

 

[greybeard]

The 1st 9 months of last year, CDC reported :
From Jan. 4 to Sept. 22, 2017, the live backyard poultry-related outbreaks reported by the CDC affected 1,120 people in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Of those who became ill, nearly 250 were hospitalized, with one death reported in North Carolina.
https://health.usnews.com/health-ca...-20/are-backyard-chickens-bad-for-your-health


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/health/backyard-chickens-carry-a-hidden-risk-salmonella.html

Outbreaks have been reported for several years now, but case numbers shot up sharply last year and are expected to continue to rise.

“Over the years, we’ve accumulated a pretty serious health issue,” said Dr. Megin Nichols, a veterinarian at the C.D.C. who tracks outbreaks. “Ownership of live poultry and the interest in raising backyard chickens and ducks is really growing.”

They give the birds clever names, like Oprah Henfrey and Sir Lays-a-lot, Mr. Schneider (The Chicken Whisperer) said. “They hug them, kiss them, put clothes on them, bring them inside the house,” he added — all behaviors that increase the risk of infection.


Those of us that raise livestock and poultry can ill afford to give the public more cause to mistrust us or the safeness of our products.

 

[mystang89]

The 1st 9 months of last year, CDC reported :
From Jan. 4 to Sept. 22, 2017, the live backyard poultry-related outbreaks reported by the CDC affected 1,120 people in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Of those who became ill, nearly 250 were hospitalized, with one death reported in North Carolina.
https://health.usnews.com/health-ca...-20/are-backyard-chickens-bad-for-your-health


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/health/backyard-chickens-carry-a-hidden-risk-salmonella.html

Outbreaks have been reported for several years now, but case numbers shot up sharply last year and are expected to continue to rise.

“Over the years, we’ve accumulated a pretty serious health issue,” said Dr. Megin Nichols, a veterinarian at the C.D.C. who tracks outbreaks. “Ownership of live poultry and the interest in raising backyard chickens and ducks is really growing.”

They give the birds clever names, like Oprah Henfrey and Sir Lays-a-lot, Mr. Schneider (The Chicken Whisperer) said. “They hug them, kiss them, put clothes on them, bring them inside the house,” he added — all behaviors that increase the risk of infection.

I'm not going to be so blind as to believe that there are and have been cases of salmonella because of backyard flocks, however I'm also not going to live with my head in the sand about some of the unsanitary hen houses that are so called "regulated".

IMHO, the more people hear about the "unsafe and unregulated" backyard herds, then the more the government is going to regulate the allowance and tolerance of having chickens unless you conform to what the government issues as a safe way to keep animals.

Those of us that raise livestock and poultry can ill afford to give the public more cause to mistrust us or the safeness of our products.

^^This
What people need to do and be taught is to simply be smart about animal raising. CLEANLINESS! There is a reason soap was invented. Once finished with my animals, wash myself. This is what needs to be posted.

 

[Latestarter]

Last comment from me on this, but it's also once again a disconnect of people from their food sources. People think that food comes from the "grocery store" and forget the stages before the end product goes in the cases and on the selves. They have no idea about farm life and farm precautions and some simply lack common sense. Again, an education issue vice regulation (grow government, regulations, restrictions, loss of freedoms, add taxes/fees to support it). Punish (regulate/tax) the many for the idiocy of the few. Sure would be nice if everyone did things the right way without having to pay big brother to watch over them. It's not just backyard "farmers" either... there have been issues with vegetables and fruits as well.

 

[Sheepshape]

but it's also once again a disconnect of people from their food sources.

I've only just come to read some of this thread, but, Latestarter, I SO agree with where you are coming from.

Now I'm a strict veggie who keeps sheep/chickens etc. Maybe there's a bit of hypocrisy here, but the animals have a very good quality of life. The sheep (and to a large extent the chickens) are treated as sentient beings. I don't try to fool myself that the ram lambs go anywhere other than to be food, and the ewes are producers of more sheep to be slaughtered for food.I therefore knew I had to go to the slaughterhouse to which we directly sell our sheep to make sure they were treated compassionately. So....I spent a day there. It goes like this......you grade your lambs who are to go for slaughter (we use the EUROP classification). the lambs then go to the slaughterhouse. They are stunned and killed, then you see the sheep after it is skinned and prior to butchery to check your accuracy.

Our local slaughterhouse has good standards. The animals are treated in a proper fashion. No panicking, no bellowing.....quiet and efficient.

Most of my non-veggie friends and relatives seem horrified that I have seen all this, and I'm seriously weird. I think it's them that are in denial....some of them think their meat comes on trays covered with cling film from the Meat God.I'm honestly not meaning to mock my omnivorous friends....what a person chooses to eat is entirely their own choice, but everyone ought to take a reality check.

 

[Mini Horses]

what a person chooses to eat is entirely their own choice, but everyone ought to take a reality check.

You and LS are right -- many people do NOT know or even THINK about their foods being from a tray or rack in the store -- nothing bore they got there. The issues with growing, feeding, collecting, handling -- BEFORE the grocery store are not even known by many. A farmer somewhere had to raise, breed, feed and milk that cow to get milk to go to a factory where even MORE people & machines put it into the nice gallon jug! No -- they only know milk "comes" that way!

It is also why livestock are petted with no thoughts about what dirt they carry. Even your dogs & cats carry their own challenges. We should not be a population that does not realize this, yet sometimes playing in such "dirt" makes our immune systems stronger. Play in the dirt and then wash up!

 

[Bruce]

OK, so I have to ask again:

1. Is there a way to test your flock for salmonella while they are still living breathing sentient beings?
2. Were the cases of Salmonella in people who had processed their own birds? I know if you aren't careful you can cut into the digestive tract and let loose bacteria. Proper cleanliness is mandatory.

 

[Mini Horses]

https://www.tractorsupply.com/know-...uestions-about-salmonella-and-backyard-flocks

Basically, all birds can carry the bacteria. Testing fecal suggested. Etc. Other links in article

I haven't looked to see if the reported cases were from/after butchering or otherwise. Certainly you could search & find some of that info. Maybe from State sites?

Obviously a test can be done -- swabbing for samples and/or blood draw. Then there's the proper handling, packaging, etc.