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Got backyard chickens? Get their eggs tested for free
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 birds 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.
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. 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.
Residents in Sonoma County may drop off eggs at the UC Cooperative Extension office at 133 Aviation Blvd Suite 109 in Santa Rosa. The UCCE office in Sonoma County is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Military veterans and beginning farmers invited to poultry workshops
Workshops will be held in Davis, San Diego and Santa Rosa.
“California has the largest number of farmer veterans in the country, with over 1,000,” said Michael O'Gorman, executive director of Farmer Veteran Coalition, which supports military veterans with the resources they need to launch successful farm businesses. “Pastured poultry operations are a growing and profitable sector of California agriculture, and FVC is excited to partner with the University of California to provide trainings on this burgeoning field!”
A four-day workshop covering several aspects of pasture-poultry production will be held Dec. 4-7, 2017, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at UC Davis.
“In addition to the more traditional topics such as flock husbandry, biosecurity, food safety, nutrition or equipment needed, we will discuss records management, marketing options and using mobile apps to capture better data,” said Maurice Pitesky, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, who is organizing the workshops.
The poultry workshops will take a participatory learning approach, rotating between presentations, scenario discussions, Q & A sessions and hands-on demonstrations.
During the demonstrations, beginning farmers will have a chance to perform health and welfare assessments of laying hens, on-site Salmonella enteritidis testing, egg candling and safe handling.
Speakers and facilitators will be experts from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, California Department of Food and Agriculture and UC Cooperative Extension.
Each day will include 90 minutes of networking opportunities with other beginning farmers. The registration fee is $80 and includes lunch. To register, visit http://ucanr.edu/newpoultryfarmer.
Beginning farmers will gain insightful information on successfully raising poultry flocks on pasture, as well as practical expertise, connections with other farmers and professionals in the field, and better awareness and knowledge of resources and opportunities available.
One-day workshops are being planned for Jan. 17, 2018, in San Diego, May 16 in Santa Rosa and Aug. 8 in Davis. More information will be available at http://ucanr.edu/newpoultryfarmer.
To better communicate with backyard poultry enthusiasts and to protect flocks from disease outbreaks, people who raise backyard poultry are encouraged to participate in a voluntary survey for the UCCE California Poultry Census at http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry/California_Poultry_Census. If there is an outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, for example, UCCE will notify participants by email and warn them to keep their birds indoors.
Related links
Pastured Poultry Farm website http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry/UC_Davis_Pasture_Poultry_and_Innovation_Farm
California Poultry Census survey http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry/California_Poultry_Census
UC Food Observer's Q & A with Maurice Pitesky http://ucfoodobserver.com/2016/04/14/california-poultry-update
Got chickens? Backyard poultry workshop offered in Oakland March 12
The workshop is sponsored by the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Cooperative Extension in Alameda County and the California Poultry Federation.
Discussion topics will include:
- Poultry behavior in backyard chickens
- Backyard biosecurity
- Backyard poultry cleaning and disinfecting
- Backyard flock pests and management techniques
- Using the California Animal Health and Food Safety Lab (CAHFS)
Speakers include Maurice Pitesky, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, Richard Blatchford, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis; Amy Murillo, UC Riverside Ph.D. candidate; and Nancy Reimers, poultry veterinarian. Rob Bennaton, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, will be on hand to answer questions about urban agriculture.
The workshop will be held 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, at the Trans Pacific Center at 1000 Broadway in Oakland. The building is on the corner of Broadway and 11th Street, near the 12th Street BART Station.
Registration is $20 and includes lunch. To register, call or email Monica Della Maggiore at (209) 576-6355 or monica@cpif.org.
Based in Modesto, the California Poultry Federation represents the state's diverse poultry industry and is the official state agency for the National Poultry Improvement Plan.
For more information about raising poultry, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/poultry. For information about urban agriculture, visit www.ucanr.edu/urbanag.
UC Davis study identifies risky food safety practices in home kitchens
The study, which examined preparation of raw poultry, found that the most common risks stemmed from cross contamination and insufficient cooking.
“The most surprising aspect of these findings to me was the prevalence of undercooking,” said Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer research at UC Davis, who authored the study. “We are now in summer, the peak season for foodborne illness, and these results come at a time when more consumers can benefit from being aware of better food safety practices. Even tips usually considered basic, like washing hands with soap and water before and after handling raw poultry, and never rinsing raw poultry in the sink, still need to be emphasized for a safer experience,” added Bruhn, a specialist in UC Cooperative Extension who studies consumer attitudes and behaviors toward food safety.
Most risks can be avoided by practicing thorough hand-washing, never rinsing raw chicken in the sink and using calibrated thermometers to determine that chicken is fully cooked. Researchers say these results will help narrow areas of focus and define important messages for food safety educators and advocates in their mission to promote safe food preparation.
The study analyzed video footage taken of 120 participants preparing a self-selected chicken dish and salad in their home kitchens. The participants were experienced in chicken preparation, with 85 percent serving chicken dishes in their home weekly, and 84 percent reporting being knowledgeable about food safety; 48 percent indicated they had received formal food safety training.
Cross contamination was of specific concern to researchers:
- Most participants, 65 percent, did not wash their hands before starting meal preparation and 38 percent did not wash their hands after touching raw chicken.
- Only 10 percent of participants washed their hands for the recommended duration of 20 seconds and about one-third of the washing occasions used water only, without soap.
- Nearly 50 percent of participants were observed washing their chicken in the sink prior to preparation, a practice that is not recommended as it leads to spreading bacteria over multiple surfaces in the kitchen. See the U.S. Department of Agriculture website: http://1.usa.gov/1licv0U.
Insufficient cooking was also observed:
- Forty percent of participants undercooked their chicken, regardless of preparation method and only 29 percent knew the correct USDA recommended temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Researchers observed that cooking thermometers were not widely used, with only 48 percent of participants owning one, and 69 percent of those reporting that they seldom use it to check if chicken is completely cooked. Most participants determined “fully cooked” based on appearance, an unreliable method according to the USDA. No participants reported calibrating their thermometers to ensure accuracy.
Based on the study's findings, a coalition of agriculture and food safety partners, including the California Department of Food and Agriculture, UC Davis, the California Poultry Federation, the Oregon Department of Agriculture, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the Northwest Chicken Council, Partnership for Food Safety Education, and Foster Farms, are launching an educational campaign to increase consumer knowledge about safe food preparation practices in the home. The study was funded by contributions from Foster Farms.
“We all have an important role in ensuring food safety and preventing foodborne illness,” said Shelley Feist, executive director of the nonprofit Partnership for Food Safety Education. “Dr. Bruhn's research shows that some home food safety practices need to be reinforced with consumers. Proper hand-washing and the consistent use of thermometers are basic preventive actions that need to be part of all home food handling and preparation.”
California agriculture officials and representatives have been vocal in recent weeks about salmonella control at the ranch level.
“The California poultry industry has made great strides in reducing salmonella on raw chicken,” said Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “However, even at this lower level, consumers still need to practice safe handling and cooking of raw poultry.” \
Ross recently recorded a public service announcement calling for more attention to safe handling and cooking for raw poultry and meats.
“The poultry industry takes its responsibility to produce a safe product very seriously, as evidenced by current food safety programs that are drastically reducing the incidence of salmonella,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation. “At the same time, the research indicates that the consumer recognizes they also have a role in ensuring safety. This research provides a great opportunity to educate consumers with the most helpful information and tools to minimize risk and gives us a clear picture of what behaviors to focus on.”
The study's complete findings will be published in the September/October issue of Food Protection Trends. Consumers can find free downloadable information on home food safety at http://www.fightbac.org.
When salmonella outbreak hit, consumers responded
According to a study conducted by Chantal Toledo and Sofia Berto Villas-Boas in an ARE Update published by UC Davis' Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, consumers tend to respond to food scares and government warnings. This is consistent with a Sacramento Bee report announcing a 25 percent decrease in the sale of Foster Farms chicken. The study also suggests that, in the case of an outbreak, consumers don't always switch to alternative brands. The 2010 egg recall resulted in an overall drop in egg sales because consumers did not switch to alternative egg brands. Although it is too early to determine a change in overall chicken sales, Julia Thomas at the Sacramento Natural Foods Coop has reported a 10 percent increase in chicken sales since the salmonella outbreak. According to Thomas, foodborne disease outbreaks are good for the organic food movement.
The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine is planning a series of experiments to better understand Salmonella Heidelberg, the strain of salmonella found in Foster Farms Chicken, which has been a problem for the poultry industry in California and has been associated with human outbreaks since last year. Using molecular techniques, the experiments will study gene expression and determine a better characterization of the strains involved in the outbreak.
The School of Veterinary Medicine is also collaborating with the Animal Science Department at UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension to leverage DNA sequencing in order to better understand the virulence of Salmonella Heidelberg and it's potential to cause disease under processing conditions.
Concerned about your own chickens? "The CAHFS Lab System routinely provides diagnostic support for commercial, small flock and backyard poultry producers in California," says Richard Breitmeyer, director of the the California Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS) Lab System at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, "including testing for salmonella." More information can be found on their website.
Foodborne Disease Outbreaks and Consumer Purchases
Roasted chicken. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
