In the real world news today Thurs, November 29 2018

[greybeard]

Never a good thing to be a statistic... That being said, statistically, that number of infections is the equivalent of zero... 200/1000000=.0002 or .02% chance of infection. I would wager a guess that there are substantially more than 1 million households with backyard chickens as well. I would guess better than 10 times that number, which would make the chances correspondingly low at .002%

Sorry, but CDC or not, it really is a non-issue. It really is a very unimportant statistic. People get sick from lots of things.

It's always easy to rationalize or minimize any risk as long as it is someone else's ox being gored.

I can just imagine what would befall me if I were to walk into a hospital room of a child being treated for salmonella and tell the parents they & their child were a meaningless statistic. I better be ready to have my old butt drug outside by the father to see what I was really made of.

I saw the same kind of comments made by more than a few cattlemen when the mad cow thing originally came up. They changed their tune quickly when FDA/USDA/FSIS imposed serious regulations and instructions on that sector even tho today, out of about 350million US population, only 5 cases have been reported and only 231 in a global population of 7.6 billion.

FDA and USDA does look to the CDC for guidance re restrictions and regulations, and one of the things all 3 look at is the attitude of producers. Blowing this off indifferently is not going to go far in prevention of regulating the home egg business.

 

[greybeard]

The map:
https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/backyard-flocks-06-18/map.html

 

[OneFineAcre]

Back to the meats, I like ahi grade tuna seared medium rare. Steak medium rare, pork chops medium.
I love raw oysters.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love raw oysters.

OMG! I'd eat a dozen of 'em right now if I could...

 

[mystang89]

My dad loves them. I can handle them. My wife throws then up lol

 

[Latestarter]

Not rationalizing or minimizing anything in the least. Just being realistic. If you want to quote statistics, then you have to do so statistically and statistically, that percentage is zero. As I said, sucks to be a statistic and I don't wish that on anyone or anyone's kids. I would never go in to an ER and tell some parent that their kid can die because statistically, they don't matter. I mean, where did that even come from? No matter what you do or espouse to do, you will NEVER achieve zero (true zero) risk in life. Just aint gonna happen. You can minimize and mitigate, but not eliminate. Risk is a factor in all of life.

Over regulation and further government expansion/meddling/regulation is NOT the answer either. There are too many laws and restrictions/regulations on EVERYTHING right now. We are no longer a free society in any stretch of the imagination.

I think based on statistics and sheer numbers, all moving automotive vehicles should be banned and done away with based on the number of highway deaths caused by/in vehicles. Lets ban cigarettes and liquor as well. There are so many other statistically deadly things we should regulate further or eliminate. You yourself brought up the mad cow issue.

Education is the key and helping folks who are doing things wrong/improperly to "fix" those issues. Identify the problem and FIX it, not regulate it.

 

[goatgurl]

good point @Latestarter.

 

[Mini Horses]

Looking at the map on the site referenced, it shows NC to be the top state for such infections reported (a total of 27). I would like to mention that they also have a HUGE number of large chicken producers -- even tho this report says "backyard flocks". I believe we had that many people shot around here in the past month.....even though we had zero backyard chicken salmonella cases. Maybe they could work on reducing that?

 

[greybeard]

I would never go in to an ER and tell some parent that their kid can die because statistically, they don't matter. I mean, where did that even come from?

I didn't say 'they didn't matter', I said 'a meaningless statistic' which is equivalent to 'very unimportant'. There is a difference in the syntax, but it won't be picked up by the parent as he's dragging me out into the street.

CDC/FDA strives for zero risk, that is their goal, and when they see people publicly state that the risk is 'very unimportant' they are more likely to conclude that the given demographic is question is unlikely to self regulate themselves, just as they did when so many cattle producers blew off BSE when it first became an issue, just as so many smokers and the tobacco industry did with cigarettes.

The odds of being killed in a US aviation accident (or even being in one) are said to be 1 in 11 million, (.07 per Billion passenger miles) and even in infancy, was considerably safer than an automobile, yet the industry, both private and commercial is heavily regulated regarding safety, maintenance, and health. It did not get that way in a vacuum. Any sector that ignores or pooh poohs risk to themselves or the public is shooting themselves in the foot.

2. Hypothetical questions .
Mary Poppins is and has been for many months, selling backyard flock produced eggs at the weekly flea market.
The guy in the next booth selling Chinese widgets, puts up a sign saying

1. Compared to previous weekends, did Mary Poppins sell more, less, or an equal quantity of eggs that weekend?
2. Do the members of the general public reading that sign believe the backyard producers are serious or just 'blah blah blah' about their own and the public's risk of infection?

Try, to look at the world thru it's eyes and not thru your's. See the world as it is, not as we are or as we would like it to be.

If home egg producers and home producers of any kind want federal regs, and fewer permits to keep backyard flocks and herds, then continue to minimize/rationalize risk factors, because that's how you get regulation.
Again, it was a silly thing to say, but from what I've read here and everywhere else, it is being repeated over and over again.

 

[mystang89]

So what you're trying to say is that the higher powers that be are saying that much of the salmonella cases are caused by backyard flocks and because the higher powers that be are saying this many people take it at face value without doing the proper research?

Sounds like how fake news gets spread around. One person shares something and no one does the homework on it so it gets passed around for more people and eventually its right up there with real news.