- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As producers and government agencies continue to investigate last month's enormous recall of Iowa-produced eggs, California egg farmers are pondering whether new rules that will govern the state's hen houses will play a role in preventing or exacerbating egg-borne illness, said an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Proposition 2, enacted by a wide margin of California voters in 2008, will require egg producers to provide adequate room for their hens to turn around freely, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs.
A Humane Society of the United States spokesperson told Chron reporter Carolyn Lockhead that the evidence is "very clear" that caging laying hens increases the risk of salmonella. However, Ralph Ernst, extension poultry specialist emeritus at UC Davis, who helped write California's voluntary egg production rules, told her that cages "are more sanitary than any other housing system, period."
A farmer quoted in the story said the caged environment separates the birds from their feces.
"In a cage-free environment you do not do that," Petaluma farmer Arnie Riebli said. "You allow the birds to walk in it and you allow the birds to eat it. Believe me, all you're doing is feeding them bacteria. Would you allow a small child to play in his excrement or eat his excrement?"
How regulators will interpret and enforce Prop 2's requirements are still unclear. Some farmers believe larger, "furnished" cages will be allowed.
Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, said there is no reason to think that cages have any specific effect on the food safety aspect of the eggs.
"Cage-free is probably more dangerous when it comes to salmonella," Sumner was quoted.
The connection is so clear that industry trade publication World Poultry published an article on 5-20-10 entitled "Salmonella Thrives in Cage Housing,” when they conclude: “It is likely that the type of housing that layer hens are kept in influences the occurrence of infection. This appears to be in the advantage of flocks that are reared in alternative housing systems in comparison to cage systems.”
Jay-Russell said, “The article also goes on to say that factors other than housing may be important, such as herd and flock size, stress, age of the building, rats and mice, vaccination status and other Salmonella species.”
We can't ignore that ten out of the last ten studies published on the topic found higher rates of Salmonella in cage operations than cage-free. You can see all ten studies at www.humanesociety.org/salmonella.
Thanks and I hope you have a great weekend.
"There's little evidence that salmonella levels are any different in commercial birds compared to birds housed at smaller farms or in backyards, Jay-Russell adds. A 1996 study published in the journal Avian Disease found higher levels of a specific type of salmonella in free-range compared to caged birds. But a 2004 study conducted by researchers at the Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit at the Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center in Athens, Ga., found no difference in salmonella levels in free-range chickens compared to conventionally raised chickens."