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FDA ties chicken feed to salmonella in egg recall
A sign in the egg case at a local Safeway grocery store details Lucerne brand eggs that have been recalled at the store in Golden, Colorado August 21, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bacteria found in chicken feed used at two Iowa farms has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that prompted the recall of more than a half billion contaminated eggs, U.S. regulators said on Thursday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would keep investigating to determine whether the bacteria originated in the chicken feed or arrived there from another source.
"We do not know at this point how, when or where this feed may have been contaminated," said Jeff Farrar, U.S. Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner for food protection. "That's part of our ongoing investigation and we'll work very hard to try and determine that."
The contaminated feed was produced at a feed mill that is part of Wright County Egg operation and also went out to the second farm linked to the outbreak, Hillandale Farms of Iowa, FDA said.
The FDA collected around 600 samples from 24 possible sources of contamination on the two Iowa farms, said Sherri McGarry, foodborne outbreak coordinator.
Several Wright County Egg samples tested positive for salmonella, including feed, manure swabs and environmental swabs from a barn.
"The sense that the investigators have is that there's evidence of contamination of the farm. While they have found it in the feed, they are not concluding any type of cause-and-effect relationship," said FDA principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein.
The DNA in Wright County Egg farm samples matched the DNA of the bacteria in the outbreak, but feed ingredients may not have been the originating point for the salmonella outbreak.
"This may well just be that the birds got in and contaminated or there's just contamination in the facility overall," said Joshua Sharfstein, FDA principal deputy commissioner. "So we'll obviously be taking a look at everything, all the pieces of the puzzle as it comes together."
The massive egg recalls came weeks after a new FDA rule took effect that tightened safety rules at large producers and required testing in poultry houses for salmonella bacteria.
The egg rule did not specifically address testing feed for contamination, FDA officials said.
The outbreak, largest since the 1970s, may be linked to almost 2,400 cases of salmonella-related illnesses around the country since May 1, although at least 930 such cases are reported during this time frame on an average year.
The recalled eggs were sold under the brand names Sunny Farms, Hillandale Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms and West Creek, Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms, Kemps, James Farms, Glenview, Pacific Coast, Alta Dena Dairy, Driftwood Dairy, Hidden Villa Ranch, Challenge Dairy, and Country Eggs.
(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by David Gregorio)
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You are clearly oblivious, or unreasonably gullible, or frankly racist, to state that all the products recalled are from China.
Take the problem of lead poisoning for example. Studies have shown that Chinese products are not any more likely than any other country’s products to contain lead. Such studies, namely a very respected study from Canada, are not covered by most media on American prime time TV.
As a physician, I have been appalled by similarly racist folks like you, who refused to support enforcing the most serious lead poisoning “social epidemic” among minority children living in the inner cities housing projects. The politicians who defend the American lead paint manufacturers who continue to manufacture lead-laden paint, which are well documented universally in all Pediatric textbooks to cause developmental delay. The reason is because poor American children living in substandard dilapidated housing, ingest such lead laden paint that are falling off from the wall. Despite decades of indisputable evidence, the manufacturers blatantly violate the laws that prohibit lead in house paint. YET, BECAUSE THEY ARE AMERICAN VOTERS AND HAVE GREAT LOBBYING POWER THROUGH THEIR MONEY, American children continue to suffer from lead poisoning.
I once worked in the inner in Chicago. In certain neighborhood clinics, I charted the lead levels of those children no less frequently than charting those kids’ growth rate! Nonetheless, the politicians continue to defend those housing conditions vigorously.
Don’t get me started, please!
Thanks to the publicity about lead contaminated toys, which the media are willing to expose because they are from China, FINALLY, some state prosecutors are starting to sue paint manufacturers. Yet, there is no clear hope that the prosecutors will be successful. As you know, the politicians “protect” and defend the American paint manufacturers, as well as the American construction business. As a result, the prosecutors have started resorting to “nuisance” laws to attempt to get the paint manufacturers to abide by the law. Despite the fact that a first jury sided with the state prosecutor, the wealthy business folks are appealing and standing tough. There is no hope in sight that the problem will improve soon. It reminds me of the cigarette manufacturers receiving excellent political support when they successfully delayed the release of indisputable evidence of the adverse health effect of tobacco. And in case you want to settle the score with China: the United States politicians knowingly and intentionally allow American tobacco companies to spread false advertisement of positive image of tobacco even after the disclosure of the endangerment to health had been mandated in America. In other words, the US politicians knowingly took an immense amount of money from tobacco companies, knowingly condoned their promoting addiction in China at the time when they were seriously attacked by voters for doing the same decades earlier.
This is one down side to a democracy. Because foreign victims don’t vote, and don’t contribute obscene amount of money for commercials, objective news don’t get covered, because they don’t bring in money.
I told you not to get me started, didn’t I?
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