Will New Standards for Salmonella in Chicken Cut Down on Food Poisoning? - Civil Eats

Advocates like Teresa Murray, the consumer watchdog for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), say vaccine requirements could be put in place for the most dangerous serotypes, and there's some evidence that could make a difference. After a large outbreak of a type called salmonella Heidelberg in Foster Farms chicken in 2013, multiple producers began vaccinating parent chickens in addition to requiring chicks to be free of the type. Illnesses linked to that type fell dramatically over the next five years.

Governments in Sweden, Norway, and Finland all implemented strict requirements around cleaning chicken housing, on-farm testing in animals and feed, and culling infected breeding animals. They later found salmonella in less than 1 percent of the chickens they tested.

Tom Super at the National Chicken Council said that the industry has invested in on-farm controls such as "sanitation, strict biosecurity measures, litter treatments, feed treatments, and more." He also said that the majority of breeder (parent) flocks in the country are vaccinated for multiple salmonella serotypes already. However, he did not share the exact numbers, and there is no public information on which companies are vaccinating or which types they are vaccinating against. Aviagen and Cobb-Vantress, the two companies that supply nearly all the breeding stock in the country, did not respond to requests for information. Super also said that there are several barriers to companies and farmers vaccinating the broiler flocks (the chickens destined to become meat), including limited vaccine availability in the U.S.

Either way, FSIS can't require vaccines or other on-farm practices that might help reduce contamination, because its authority starts with slaughter. Another division of the USDA, the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS), has authority on farms, but its focus is squarely on diseases that affect animal health, and salmonella doesn't bother chickens.

"In many other countries, the comparable regulators have authority from the beginning of the supply chain to the end. We cannot dictate to growers . . . that they must vaccinate, or they must do something else," Eskin said. "If we can bring down the loads of salmonella going into the plant, it will be much easier for the plant to do its interventions to further reduce it, she added"

The CSPI and Consumer Reports petition calls for the implementation of a "supply chain program" with multiple controls. Kincheloe is also working on teeing up legislation that would allow APHIS to more effectively address contaminants on farms that don't affect animals but do have public health implications.

At Consumer Reports, Rogers is also hoping that a new system could include testing animals for dangerous serotypes before they enter a slaughter facility and rejecting flocks if they don't meet standards. "Not only would that mean less salmonella downstream, but it would also force [chicken] corporations to figure out a way to lower the level of these strains associated with clinical disease," he said.

Of course, in every discussion about salmonella, industry and government representatives inevitably end up talking about the importance of educating eaters on how to cook chicken thoroughly. Could more be done to reduce the risk they face every time they unwrap a boneless skinless breast and start breading? Absolutely. But Murray, the consumer watchdog, said that's not where the conversation should end.

"When it comes to any kind of consumer issue, whether it's buying something online or consuming food that could make you or your family sick, nobody takes care of you better than you," she said. "But that doesn't mean that the regulators and companies shouldn't be doing more to protect us, too."

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