Most Chicken Harbors Harmful Bacteria
83% of Chickens Tested for Consumer Reports Had 1 of 2 Sickening Bacteria.
Consumer Reports says — that “fresh poultry may [does] carry naturally occurring bacteria and should be properly handled and cooked,”
Dec. 4, 2006 — Even if you go for the more expensive organic or antibiotic-free chicken, the chicken you buy at the grocery store probably contains bacteria that can make you sick.
Careful handling and aggressive cooking can reduce, but not remove the risk!!!
A startling 83% of the chickens tested in the recent Consumer Reports investigation were contaminated with one or both of the leading bacterial causes of food-borne disease — salmonella and campylobacter.
That is way up from the results of 49% in 2003, when the group last reported on contamination in chickens, and similar to the contamination found in 1997, when almost three-fourths of the broilers Consumer Reports tested were positive for salmonella or campylobacter.
In their new report, “Dirty Birds”, investigators with Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, concluded that paying more for a chicken does not increase your chances of getting one free of illness-causing bacteria.
In fact chickens labeled as organic or raised without antibiotics and costing $3 to $5 per pound were more likely to harbor salmonella than were conventionally produced broilers that cost more like $1 a pound.
Jean Halloran of Consumers Union reports that fewer than one if five birds tested (17%) were free of both pathogens (Not free from all pathogens only those two for which they were tested), that’s the lowest percentage of clean birds recorded since the group began testing chickens eight years ago.
Investigators for the independent consumer group tested 525 whole broiler chickens from leading brands like Perdue, Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Foster Farms, as well as organic and other brands raised without antibiotics.
The chickens were purchased at supermarkets, mass retailers, gourmet shops, and natural food stores in 23 states in the spring of 06.
Among the findings:
15% of chickens tested were contaminated with salmonella, compared to the 12% reported by Consumers Union in 2003.
81% harbored campylobacter, up from 42% in 2003. This bug is the main identified cause of bacterial diarrhea illness in the world.
13% of chickens were contaminated with both bacteria, up from 5% in 2003.
84% of the salmonella organisms analyzed and 67% of the campylobacter were resistant to one or more antibiotics. In the 2003 report, 34% of the salmonella and 90% of campylobacter were resistant.
“The problem of antibiotic resistance is related to both the widespread use of antibiotics in animal feed to promote growth and the widespread use in humans,” Halloran says.
Major brands tested did not show better results than smaller brands, overall, based on tests of 78 chickens from each brand.
Halloran says it is clear routine testing is needed.
“81% [campylobacter] contamination is intolerable, in our view,” she says.
What Can You Do?
Well there is an obvious answer, but short of abstaining…
All agree that careful handling and cooking can reduce [but will never eliminate] the risk of illness from chickens harboring salmonella or campylobacter bacteria.
It is important to bare in mind that there are of course many other bacteria and various disease organisms transmitted through chicken, this study tested for only two.
Obviously, the body of any animal is full of microscopic (And larger) bugs. And when a living body becomes a cadaver (When an animal’s body is slaughtered) the “Bugs-of-decay take over in earnest. So in fact, after slaughter, the body is still full of life, but it has now been taken over by a rapidly growing population of small-sized life-forms that gross us out, and are well suited to produce serious illness and death in a new host.
When you partake of the animal cadaver (When you eat meat), you become “The New Host”.
Most often when someone eats of that flesh, he/she receives some nutrient value, a general lowering of vitality, a slow poisoning effect, and only enough “Infect-ive Microbial influence” to raise the body’s white blood cell count in response to the threat that the rotting flesh and its load of infectious bugs pose.
But many hundreds-of-times a year, the person partaking of the cadaver disguised as a burger, a nugget, a wing or whatever gets a heavier dose of the infect-ive bugs then is tolerable, and another casualty is created.
Careful handling and cooking according to the USDA, Consumer Reports and other “Authorities” goes something like this:
Always cooking chicken thoroughly, to the point where there are no red juices.
Chicken needs to be cooked to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The best thing to do is test it with a meat thermometer. And if you are in a restaurant and you cut into chicken that doesn’t look done, send it back.
Other suggestions for reducing risk include:
It is recommended that consumers cook all chicken to at least 165 degrees and wash their hands well with soap and water after handling it.
At the grocery store, make chicken one of the last things you pick up before heading to the checkout line. The point is to not touch anything that you don’t have to after handling the package of chicken.
Store and thaw chicken in the refrigerator, making sure its juices are contained and cannot contaminate other foods. Placing it on a plate, in a bowl, or inside a plastic bag is a good way to do this.
When preparing chicken, wash your hands with soap and water after contact, and immediately clean cutting boards, knives, and anything else the chicken touches in hot, soapy water or disinfectant.
Never return cooked meat to the plate that held it raw without washing the plate first. And disinfect thermometer probe between insertions.
Washing chicken and removing its skin before cooking does NOT ensure it is free of bacteria. Chicken is contaminated inside and out.
Authorities say, “Consumers now have to realize that most chickens contain disease-causing bacteria, and that means they have to act appropriately, they shouldn’t take chances”.
Consumer Reports states there are 1.1 million or more Americans sickened each year by undercooked, tainted chicken. Many more cases go unreported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that campylobacter and salmonella from all sources sickens more than 3.4 million Americans each year and kills more than 700.
And bacteria contamination is only the beginning. Many dangerous ingredients, such as sodium nitrite, are intentionally added by meat processors.”
The poultry industry is full of bizarre and creative production and processing techniques. One example: Chicken ranchers feed arsenic to their chickens to help prevent (Reduce) intestinal parasites. Deadly parasitic infections are naturally rampant in the unholy conditions that the birds people eat live and die in.
As a result chicken flesh is also loaded with dangerous levels of arsenic, which can cause cancer, severe depression, dementia, numerous neurological problems, and other ailments in humans.
Chicken litter (Poop) is valued as a FEED INGREDIENT for cattle and is being fed to cattle in the U.S. and, therefore, cows are ingesting highly toxic arsenic that’s contained in the chicken litter. You can have some too, just eat chicken or beef… But that’s another story…
Another concern is that chicken litter, laced with arsenic, is being used as crop fertilizer. Inevitably, arsenic finds its way into the rivers, stream and even the crops that are later consumed by humans. This chicken business makes a really big mess on many levels. The “Chicken Growing Business” shows total disregard for every aspect of the environment, for human health and obviously for the welfare of chickens.
Feedlot chickens too may consume feed containing chicken excrement and flesh and fluids from the bodies of sick animals (Various species). And conditions on the slaughter and packaging lines are such that feces and gut contents typically contaminate the meat.
A USDA study found that more than 99 percent (ninety-nine PERCENT) of broiler chicken carcasses sold in stores had detectable levels of E. coli, indicating fecal contamination. In other words, if you’re eating chicken flesh, you can bet you’re eating “poultry fertilizer” (Chicken Poop).
Nine billion chickens are slaughtered each year in the U.S. alone. And 81 percent of the chickens tested by Consumer Reports had campylobacter infections, (That’s just one bug tested for) up from a 2003 test that found the bacteria in 42 percent of the test sample. Currently, the USDA does not even test for deadly campylobacter
Jean Halloran of the Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, said that federal regulation is “beyond overdue.” … To say the least.
Not just eating birds, but the very practice of producing them creates sickness and pollution. The bird flu virus is the natural result of the mistreatment of animals as a food source.
When millions of chickens (Or any species) are cooped up in little tiny cages without access to free movement, sunlight or fresh air, and fed an inappropriate and poisoned diet, perfect conditions for the generation and transmission of infectious disease are created.
Historically pandemic flues have been the result of intensive and unsanitary “Animals-for-food” production.
The United States is the leader when it comes to inhumane and sickness and pollution causing feedlot conditions in many cases. But with the birds-for-food operation, Europe and Southeast Asia are major contributors to the problem.
In Southeast Asia chickens, pigs, dogs and cattle are grown in horrifying conditions and subjected to treatments that are grossly inhumane and clearly qualify as torture, as is the case in the U.S., but in those countries, the livestock animals live in close, intimate daily contact with humans, and maintain conditions that are well suited to the transmission of diseases between species and the successful development of cross-species microbial evolution.
The conditions prevalent in operations that grow birds for food amount to “Influenza Production Laboratories”. It is the winged version of the swine flu production facilities that have created curly-tailed varieties of globe sweeping epidemics in the past.
How ironic that humans’ disregard for the welfare of others (In this case, zillions of unfortunates that people eat) comes back to bight them.
It is a stretch to understand how anyone can enjoy or justify a “Nugget” knowing that:
Chickens-for-food are kept in tiny cages for the duration of their miserable lives. And before they are murdered at child’s age their beaks are cut off so they can’t injure other chickens when they go mad from the conditions under which they are forced to live. Their bodies are pumped full of chemicals to give them a better chance of staying alive long enough to make it to the slaughterhouse.
Because KFC-ing is so economically successful chickens are the most abundant “Commercial animals” and most abused animals on the planet.
Only five to seven weeks after they are born, chickens are squished onto trucks for transport to the slaughterhouse. Tens of millions of chickens have their wings and legs broken in the process every year. They are trucked through all weather extremes, on average, over hundreds of miles, without any food, water or protection from the elements. At slaughter, chickens are hung upside-down and have their throats slit, and they are often scalded to death in de-feathering tanks. Most male chicks are actually killed just after hatching, tossed onto piles or into garbage bags to suffocate in mass.
Raised for their flesh chickens are packed by the thousands-per-hour, round the clock into massive sheds. They are fed large amounts of antibiotics and other drugs to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them.
The hormone treatments and antibiotics make chickens grow so large, so rapidly, that there bodies do not resemble nature’s version and they often become crippled under their own weight.
This reckless use of antibiotics adds to the problem of the “Super Bugs” as the disease causing microbes evolve into stronger and smarter organisms. This is simply the natural, unavoidable reaction of the assault with antibiotic “Killing Therapy” in which most of the members of the germ population die and only the strongest survive.
After many cycles of the strongest bugs reproducing, and each successive generation being culled down to the strongest and reproducing again, (A generation for a microbe is sometimes just a few days in length, meaning that the process of evolution takes a stride 100 or more time in a year) we have dramatically thrown off the natural balance and produced virulent disease bugs that are considered uncontrollable. Much thanks to the irresponsible and inhumane finger lick-in’ craze.
Growing chix for food is a cruel industry, and every time you eat chicken at a restaurant or buy chicken at the grocery store, you support it.
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A tidbit of encyclopedic info on Campylobacter
At least a dozen species of Campylobacter have been implicated in human disease
Infection with a Campylobacter species is one of the most common causes of human bacterial gastroenteritis. In the United States, 15 out of every 100,000 people are diagnosed with campylobacteriosis every year. Many more cases go unreported. Up to 0.5% of the general population may unknowingly harbor Campylobacter in their gut annually. Diarrhea, cramps, abdominal pain, and fever develop within 2–5 days of pathogenic Campylobacter infection, and in most people, the illness lasts for 7–10 days. Infection can sometimes be fatal, and some (less than 1 in 1000 cases) individuals develop Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which the nerves that join the spinal cord and brain to the rest of the body are damaged, sometimes permanently.
Campylobacteriosis is usually caused by C. jejuni, a spiral-shaped bacterium typically found in cattle, swine, and BIRDS. Disease-causing bacteria generally get into people via contaminated food, often undercooked or poorly handled poultry, although contact with livestock, or household pets can also cause disease.
A tidbit of encyclopedic info on salmonella
Two species of salmonella cause typhoid and paratyphoid fever. Other species cause food poisoning. The main source of infection is contaminated meat, particularly poultry. Acute vomiting and diarrhoea occur 12–24 hours after eating contaminated food. Symptoms may be experienced as sub-clinical in persons who are used to feeling only half-well do to poor lifestyle and/or poor diet on a regular basis.
Disease-causing salmonellae are frequent causes of foodborne illness, especially from poultry and raw eggs and more generally from food that has been cooked or frozen, and not eaten promptly. These infections are often treated with antibiotics, which is of LITTLE help. More bad news is that the overuse of antibiotics in both the poultry and beef industries have created a strain of salmonella which is particularly resistant to antibiotics. It is a visious circle
Salmonellosis can also be caught by handling reptiles, such as iguanas or terrapins.
The prevention of Salmonella as a food illness involves first, not touching or eating the product, otherwise effective sanitizing of food contact surfaces. Alcohol has proven to be an effective topical sanitizer against Salmonella. It must come in contact with every inch of all contaminated surface area and remain in contact for some time.
Never, ever use Isopropyl rubbing alcohol. DON’T GO NEAR ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL; don’t keep it in the house. I know, the doctor uses it. That’s another story. I repeat, “Don’t go near Isopropyl rubbing alcohol”. If you do temp fate and bring chicken into your home, and worse, put it in the fridge or set it on the counter WHERE FOOD IS KEPT, please use a safe means of sanitizing.
No, not bleach; do not have any chlorine bleach in the house!
More on safe or safer sanitizers to come…
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There are many unfriendly guests that you invite into your home and your body when you partake of animal flesh; here’s a little guy; A little bug named Toxoplasma gondii
A single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii causes a disease known as toxoplasmosis. While the parasite is found throughout the world, more than 60 million people in the United States may be infected with the Toxoplasma parasite. Pregnant women and individuals that have compromised immune systems should be cautious; for them, a Toxoplasma infection could cause serious health problems.
How do people get toxoplasmosis?
Eating contaminated raw or partly cooked meat of any variety, but especially pork, lamb, or venison; by touching your hands to your mouth after handling undercooked meat.
By contaminating food with knives, utensils, cutting boards and other foods that have had contact with raw meat.
Also, living with cats can invite Toxoplasma gondii into your body. Being very careful about exposure to cat feces and litter-box dust will help, and of course periodic parasite cleanses for everyone sharing the living space with a cat are highly recommended (Necessary).
Symptoms of toxoplasmosis vary
Some people who have toxoplasmosis may feel as if they have the “flu” with swollen lymph glands or muscle aches and pains that last for a month or more.
Severe toxoplasmosis, causing damage to the brain, eyes, or other organs, can develop from an acute Toxoplasma infection or one that had occurred earlier in life and is now reactivated.
Severe cases are more likely in individuals who have weak immune systems, though occasionally; even persons with healthy immune systems may experience eye damage from toxoplasmosis.
Symptoms of ocular toxoplasmosis can include reduced vision, blurred vision, pain (often with bright light), redness of the eye, and sometimes tearing. Most infants who are infected while still in the womb have no symptoms at birth, but they may develop symptoms later in life. A small percentage of infected newborns have serious eye or brain damage at birth.
How can you prevent toxoplasmosis?
There are several general sanitation and food safety steps you can take to reduce your chances of becoming infected with Toxoplasma.
Wash your hands well with soap and water after outdoor activities, especially before you eat or prepare any flesh food.
When preparing raw meat, wash any cutting boards, sinks, knives, and other utensils that might have touched the raw meat thoroughly with soap and hot water to avoid cross-contaminating other foods.
Be very careful so as not to colonize towels, drawer handles, fridge handles Etc. and then pick up the bugs the next time you touch those surfaces. Wash your hands well with soap and water after handling raw meat.
Cook all meat thoroughly; that is, to an internal temperature of 160° F or higher and until it is no longer pink in the center or until the juices become colorless.
Do not taste meat before it is fully cooked.
When and after shopping at a grocery store, do not touch your face. Even if you do not purchase any meat, the Toxoplasma bug may live for some time on the shopping cart handle and other common surfaces after being deposited by someone who did handle infected meat.
When you arrive at home wash hands thoroughly, and after stocking the groceries wash hands again.
Wear gloves when you garden or do anything outdoors that involves handling soil. Cats, which may pass the parasite in their feces, often use gardens and sandboxes as litter boxes.
Don’t eat or touch meat.
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