Yuck! I don't think I would want to eat eggs from a chicken that was consuming a rotting old rabbit carcass, but we all have different tastes. I would agree that in the past--even the recent past--it was much easier to get eggs and chickens that had not been contaminated by several awful things. Now, with factory farming, producing inexpensive agricultural products is the only concern, and there are no ethical considerations at all.
Animal rights activists have been trying to get very basic laws passed for chickens, so that cutting off their beaks, leaving them without food and water, or with dead carcasses rotting beside them in tiny spaces, would be illegal. The average chicken being raised for meat spends its entire short life in square footage about the size of a piece of copy paper, and never even experiences sunshine until it is on its way to the slaughterhouse. Pumped full of hormones for rapid breast meat growth, it often dies of broken legs or heart attacks because its body cannot support the extra weight. It is definitely inhumane.
Chickens left to their own devices play with each other, create chicken societies with pecking orders, teach their children about life in the barnyard, and have actual happy lives. But the meat lobby is so strong that there are still absolutely no humane treatment regulations for chickens, which are often scalded alive.
And that's not all!!! Fecal contamination, etc.!!!!
Study Finds 95% of Non-Organic
Poultry Contaminated with Feces
& Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
Minneapolis Study Finds 90% of Non-Organic Poultry Contaminated with
Feces & Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2002
CONTACT: Kendra Kimbirauskas, Sierra Club, (612) 702-7298
David Wallinga, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 612-870-3418,
cell 612-203-5633
Bacteria on Poultry Puts Twin Cities Consumers at Risk, New Study Finds
Chicken and Turkey From Area Groceries Test Positive for Resistant Microbes
Minneapolis - The first study to examine the presence of multiple
antibiotic-resistant bacteria in brand-name poultry products finds that
many Twin Cities consumers, along with their chicken and turkey, are
ingesting bacteria resistant to important human antibiotics like
Ciprofloxacin (Cipro), Synercid, and Tetracycline.
According to tests conducted by an independent laboratory for
Sierra Club and the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy, 95% of the whole chickens tested were contaminated with
Campylobacter bacteria - 62% of the Campylobacter tested were resistant to
1 or multiple antibiotics. Salmonella bacteria were found in 45% of ground
turkey purchased, and 62% of Salmonella from turkey tested for resistance
was found resistant to 1 or more antibiotics. Salmonella and Campylobacter
bacteria are the two most common bacterial causes of U.S. foodborne
illness, and are responsible for over 3.3 million infections and more than
650 deaths every year.
"Most patients with bacterial food poisoning don't need to be treated with
antibiotics. But for those whose infections spread beyond the intestine,
antibiotic treatment can be lifesaving," said David Wallinga, M.D.,
Co-Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Food and
Health Program. "As bacteria on food get more and more resistant to the
antibiotics doctors rely on for treating infections, it puts patients'
lives at risk. This study confirms that supermarket chicken or turkey can
be an important source of drug-resistant infections."
The study was conducted on 200 fresh whole chickens and 200 packages of
ground turkey purchased from grocery stores in Minneapolis and Des Moines.
Whole chickens tested included two popular brands, Country Pride and Gold'N
Plump, owned by ConAgra Poultry Group and St. Cloud-based Gold'N Plump
Poultry, respectively. Ground turkey tested belonged to the Jennie-O and
Honeysuckle White brands. Jennie-O Turkey Store, Inc., is a subsidiary of
Austin-based Hormel Foods, and Honeysuckle White is a subsidiary of
Minnetonka-based Cargill, Inc.
Other findings of the lab tests include:
· Both Salmonella and Campylobacter contaminated 14% of the Gold'N Plump
chickens and 32% of the Country Pride chickens that were tested for both
microbes.
· More than 6% of Campylobacter from chickens, and more than 8% of
Camplyobacter from all poultry subsequently tested for resistance was found
resistant to Cipro. Cipro is the "medicine of choice" for presumptively
treating severe cases of bacterial food poisoning, as well as traveler's
diarrhea and other infections in adults. FDA has estimated (2001) that
more than 153,000 people contracted Cipro-resistant Campylobacter from
eating contaminated chicken in 1999.
· One package of Jennie-O ground turkey was contaminated both with
Salmonella resistant to 4 antibiotics, and Campylobacter resistant to 6
antibiotics, including to Cipro.
· Twenty percent of Country Pride chicken, and 15% of Gold'N Plump chicken
carried Salmonella. Among the Salmonella bacteria from chicken tested for
resistance, 6% were resistant to 4 or more antibiotics.
· More than 90% of Enterococci bacteria recovered from chicken or turkey,
and tested for resistance, was resistant to the critical human antibiotic,
Synercid. Strains of resistant Enterococci are a growing cause of
infections and deaths in hospitals; Synercid is one of the few antibiotics
still effective against them.
For decades, antibiotics have dramatically reduced illness and death from
bacterial infections. The effectiveness of these life-saving drugs has
begun to wane because antibiotics are being overused. An important source
of overuse is factory poultry and livestock farms, which routinely feed
antibiotics to animals that aren't sick-both to promote growth and to
compensate for crowded, stress-inducing and unsanitary conditions that are
conducive to infection.
Scientific consensus now says that antibiotic use in food animals
contributes to antibiotic resistant bacteria transferred to humans, mainly
through contaminated food. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates
that 70% of all antibiotics in the U.S. are fed to pigs, poultry and cattle
for reasons other than treating disease. The majority of such medicines
are "medically important," and are identical, or nearly so, to human
antibiotics.
"Fortunately, consuming meat with antibiotic-resistant bacteria is not
inevitable," said Kendra Kimbirauskas, Sierra Club's Minnesota-based
Antibiotics in Agriculture Organizer. "Shoppers can look for meat from
animals raised without antibiotics and can urge their grocery stores and
favorite restaurants to offer the same. Consumers should also cook meat
thoroughly and follow safe meat-handling procedures. In the end, however,
the best solution is for poultry producers to stop giving antibiotics to
birds or flocks that aren't sick."
The report is available at iatp.org.
Des Moines Register |
