Advice for the Backyard Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Californians who raise poultry outdoors are invited to get their eggs tested for contaminants.
To find out if harmful substances on the ground that are eaten by hens get passed along in the eggs they lay, Maurice Pitesky, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, is providing free egg testing.
"We're trying to understand the connection between the environment that backyard poultry are raised in and the eggs they are producing," Pitesky said.
Pitesky's colleague, veterinary toxicologist Birgit Puschner is testing eggs for different types of contaminants, depending on the county the eggs are from. Eggs from counties recently affected by wildfires will be tested for chemicals, building materials and heavy metals that may have been carried in the smoke and ash. Pitesky and Puschner are also looking for lead and PCBs in eggs from certain regions of the state.
The UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist will share individual egg results with each poultry owner. At the end of the study, all of the results will be summarized and made available to the general public.
Pitesky describes the project in a video produced by CropMobster for UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. You can watch the video at https://youtu.be/3ZlytlUIS3I.
For more information about the study and how to package and ship eggs, visit http://ucanr.edu/eggtest.
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers and educators draw on local expertise to conduct agricultural, environmental, economic, youth development and nutrition research that helps California thrive. Learn more at ucanr.edu.
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer our gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, although we will be moving this spring. We will notify you if/when that occurs. We can also be reached via telephone: (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)
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Advice from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County
Besides editing this portion of the MGCC's HOrT COCO blog, I'm something of a blog junkie. I probably subscribe to about a dozen of the UCANR blogs as well as others either directly and indirectly. Luckily, most don't publish that often. I used to be an avid book reader, but I'm finding that I'm now using my former “reading” time indulging in web blogs.
One blog I follow on the UCANR server is the IGIS blog. GIS basically being information gained from aerial and satellite mapping has always fascinated me. GIS came too late in my work career to really indulge, but the IGIS blogs on the various uses of GIS I find fascinating and informative.
I'd also recently heard anecdotal concerns that some backyard chicken raising wasn't quite as well-done due to lack of knowledge, and that shortfall could potentially impact the whole poultry community. Apparently from similar concerns, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the UC Cooperative Extension want to assess and remedy this concern and have embarked on a census of the California backyard poultry community. Quoting from their opening statements about the census on http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry/California_Poultry_Census/
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Note: As veterinarians at UC Davis our interest is in working with Backyard poultry and their owners to improve poultry health. The data in this survey is strictly for outreach purposes. We want to work with you. We are a university, not a regulatory agency and, therefore, our focus is on outreach and education and not regulation and enforcement.
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If you are part of the backyard poultry/chicken community, you are strongly encouraged to participate in the UCD census. It's only 2 minutes of your time and the benefits for you and you poultry/chickens are significant… cluck… cluck
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County (SIM)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/blogroll.cfm).