- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Last month's enormous egg recall continues to generate news coverage about efforts to keep salmonella-contaminated eggs out of the U.S. food supply.
Experts quoted in a Los Angeles Times story published yesterday agreed that salmonella contamination can happen in any egg production system - large operations, small family farms or in the backyard. Chickens infected with salmonella shed the pathogen in their feces, which can contaminate the egg shell. In rare instances, salmonella infects a hen's ovaries and can end up inside the eggs she lays, the article said.
A Texas A&M University professor said eggs from large-scale...
- 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...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Egg prices will rise about 2 cents each at the farm gate when new laws go into effect in 2015 that require egg-laying hens be given more space to move around. California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 2 in 2008, requiring the state's producers to modify their egg production practices.
This week, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a law that requires the producers of all eggs sold in California - even if they are out of state - to follow the same guidelines.
In stories about the latest development, the media sought expert analysis from Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, who co-wrote a report...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
University of California Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists are go-to people for the press when they are looking for expertise on a wide variety of topics. Here are a couple subjects UC academics tackled in recent days:
Suburban coyotes culled - Los Angeles Times
Times reporter Joe Monzingo wrote a feature story on suburban coyote trapper Jimmie Rizzo. According to the article, coyotes are becoming an increasing problem in some Southern California neighborhoods, putting small dogs, cats and even young children at risk. The article cited a 2004 UC Davis finding that the first...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The latter third of a 1,100-word article on backyard chickens published today in the Christian Science Monitor was based on information from UC Davis Cooperative Extension specialist Francine Bradley.
The article was a trend piece on growing interest in keeping chickens in urban or suburban settings to supply families with fresh eggs, organic fertilizer and pest control.
Bradley told reporter Maryann Mott that the responsibility taken on when adopting chickens is no different from that for more traditional pets, like dogs and cats.
"If you're going to be the steward of an animal, you should know how to take care of it before you...
