Andrea Etter I don’t think I’ve done a post on this before, so here goes… Ever wonder where chickens get Salmonella from? It turns out there are a lot of options. In our research it seems adults most likely get Salmonella from the environment, feed, wild animals/birds, or each other (yes, feed can contain Salmonella–probably …
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What we found in 2022: baby chicks
2022 was our third year of agricultural supply store sampling for Salmonella. We sampled at 9 stores across Vermont, collecting a total of 195 samples from March-July 2022. So, what did we find? Overall positivity rates were slightly higher this year (40.5% vs 34%). Hatcheries not participating in NPIP Salmonella monitoring programs had higher rates …
We’re still doing research!
We have been busy processing samples this summer and going through the review process with our first paper from this project, but we’re looking forward to gathering some more backyard flock samples in August and September. Interested in participating? Check out the options here. We will be at the International Association for Food Protection July …
2022 Samplings Have Started!
We are several weeks into our 2022 chick sampling and have so far we have processed 23 samples. We have found several positive so far, so we’re keeping an eye on things to see what happens! Of course, the vast majority of chick days are still to come, so it’s too soon to know if …
Webinar with Sugar Feather Farm (3/14/22)
Curious to get the “deep scoop” on this project? Check out this webinar we co-hosted with Nicolle Ferrier of Sugar Feather Farm.
Upcoming Webinar (3/14) on Salmonella on backyard chickens
As we’re heading towards the sampling season, we’re partnering with Sugar Feather Farm to present a webinar on our research on Salmonella and chickens/chicks and what that means for backyard chicken owners. To sign up, click the link below. It’ll ensure you get a calendar invite and an email reminder about the webinar the day …
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December Roundup & Planning for Next Season
We’re nearly done with processing all this year’s samples. Some turnover in lab members has led to some sample data getting lost & samples needing to be reprocessed (ugh!). But such is life. The team is now solidified and fully trained, so we’re making good progress & will hopefully close out the 2021 samples prior …
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Research Update: October 12, 2021
Adults: We’ve added a few more chickens/flocks to our roster since July. We’re now up to 41 flocks (40 hobby flocks). Of these, five have had chickens with Salmonella, with a total of six chickens of 430 having Salmonella. What does this mean? The odds of an individual chicken having Salmonella are pretty low–about 1/100. …
Research Update 7/22/2021
Chicks and Salmonella update Sorry it’s been a while. We had a contaminated pipette shedding Salmonella into our samples, so we were delayed while we switched out pipettes, cleaned everything, implemented more stringent controls, and re-ran all our positive samples (we almost always collect more sample than we need and have the extra frozen).So here …
Research Updates 5/18/21: Adult chickens; babies
The last couple of weeks have been exciting for chicken & chick sampling results. Keep in mind that “exciting” for scientists is roughly the same as “interesting times,” in this case meaning we have found a lot of Salmonella recently. ADULT BIRDS: We have found Salmonella in an additional flock of chickens, bring our adult …
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