The Spread Of Salmonella
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The Washington Post has an article about the history of the spread of Salmonella:
“Like the things that cause AIDS, Lyme disease, Legionnaire’s disease and West Nile fever, the egg-loving germ (whose formal name is Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis) is a classic “emerging infectious agent.” Sometimes called SE, it’s a microbe that has been around a long time and has found a new or better way to reach its human victims.
For more than three decades, the strain of salmonella bacteria with a fondness for eggs has taken advantage of changes in this country’s animal husbandry, food distribution and eating habits.”
Or… one could say that animal agribusiness has taken advantage of animals. One could say industrial egg farmers take advantage of egg consumers. It would certainly make more sense to attribute intention to the humans in the story than to a microbe… but whatever, the Post can spin the history of Salmonella food poisoning however it wants to. That’s their prerogative.
More:
“Industrial farming put huge numbers of birds in confined spaces heavily contaminated with their manure, which can harbor salmonella for as long as two years. Many farmers bought chicks from large suppliers, spreading the bacteria between regions. Some chicken farmers forced their hens to molt by starving them for a brief period. That dramatically increases the length of a hen’s egg-laying life, but the stress can increase a bird’s susceptibility to SE infection and increase the likelihood it will produce infected eggs.
At the same time, restaurants and food processors often pooled hundreds or thousands of eggs in cooking, allowing a few infected eggs to contaminate many dishes.”
The article then explains how to avoid contamination:
The “infectious dose” of SE isn’t known, although some outbreaks suggest that fewer than 50 cells of the bacterium can make a person ill. The best way to avoid infection is to cook eggs until both white and yolk are hard, and to cook dishes containing eggs until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.
Why do they always say stuff like that? Now that’s not merely writer’s artistic license, that’s outright misleading. No, don’t just cook the disease out of your “food.” Instead, question whether or not you should be eating something that requires such stringent “proper handling” that a misstep could kill a nearby toddler.
The CDC says:
“Children are the most likely to get salmonellosis. The rate of diagnosed infections in children less than five years old is about five times higher than the rate in all other persons. Young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised are the most likely to have severe infections. It is estimated that approximately 400 persons die each year with acute salmonellosis.”
The BEST way to avoid infection is to avoid the source of the infection! The BEST way, the truly BEST way to avoid Salmonella is to eat a plant-based diet and avoid eggs entirely.
What should you replace eggs with? Here are some suggestions >>
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