The posting shared this info:
> CONTAMINATION IN CHICKEN
> Feb. 25 /98
> N.Y. Times/AP
> More coverage of the Consumers Union study of almost 1,000 chickens,
> purchased in 36 cities over a five-week period last fall, which found that
> 71 per cent of the chickens were contaminated with either of two
> harmful bacteria: 63 percent with campylobacter and 16 percent with
> salmonella. Eight percent of the chickens had both. Only 29 percent were
> free of contamination.
> The stories notes that public health officials estimated that
> campylobacter was responsible for 1.1 million to 7 million food-borne
> illnesses each year and between 110 and 1,000 deaths. Salmonella, they
> said, was responsible for 700,000 to 4 million illnesses and the deaths of
> as many as 2,000.
I raise chickens. I am a very small scale producer by any or all measures. My
birds are raised using the pastured poultry method. My point is this:
Chickens are living, breathing, scratching, living systems. They are
creatures covered with creatures, to be sure. My feeling is that chickens
have and always will have some measure of salmonella or camylobactor, or
whatever bad bacteria of the week. There is no such thing as a sterile, germ
free living creature as far as I can tell. I have this notion that the birds
will pick up salmonella or capmy. from the environment where they have been
raised or picked up during the slaughtering process, or wherever. I think it
just might be unreasonable to respond to information, like the NYT article
above, which suggests our food is causing illness (because it also contains
everpresent microorganisms). I would love to go back and see the original
research, to check for some possible confounding variables, like food
preparation. How many of those illnesses could have been prevented with
better food handeling and preparation? 90%? Or put a different way, who is
responsible, the food production system, or the food preparer? Articles like
the NYT one above shouldn't put down the bird without also saying someting
like what I am saying here, that microorganisms are natural, or, don't by
birds that have puffy or gas filled packaging, that smell, etc.. Poultry
producers bear all of the risks in there production system as it is, we don't
need any more misguided consumers out there making it harder for us. Now, I
may have made some misguided statements of biology here, so if anyone out
there has a better grasp of the biology, please offer some better info to me.
Thanks in advance,
JM
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".