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What's even more amazing is that we address Salmonella by washing eggs rather than vaccinating hens. In many European countries, all laying hens are vaccinated

What's even more amazing is that we address Salmonella by washing eggs rather than vaccinating hens. In many European countries, all laying hens are vaccinated, and you can make and eat raw eggs in all kinds of great things like chocolate mousse without worrying about Salmonella.

cm2012 8y ago
EU has a higher salmonella rate than the USA.
- AlisdairO 8y ago
  Uk, which does this properly, has a vastly lower rate.
- cameldrv 8y ago
  In the U.K., from roughly 1995 to 2008, the number of vaccinated chickens went from 0% to 85%, and the rate of Salmonella went down by about 87.5%. https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/01/poultry-vaccinations-credited-for-uks-big-drop-in-salmonella/ https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/01/poultry-vaccinations-...
  - The_suffocated 8y ago
    The interviewee in the news report you've mentioned was probably cherry-picking. She said that "the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of illness dropped from more than 18,000 in 1993 to just 459 in 2010", but that 459 figure is most likely an outlier. According to Annual Epidemiological Report for 2016: Salmonellosis (https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/AER_for_2016-salmonellosis.pdf https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/AER_for_...), there were 8K to 10K confirmed Salmonella cases per year in the UK from 2012 to 2016. On the other hand, according to Galiş et al. (2013), "Control of Salmonella Contamination of Shell Eggs—Preharvest and Postharvest Methods: A Review" (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.1...), vaccination of chickens against Salmonella is _banned_ in Ireland. Yet, the country has the second lowest incidence rate of Salmonellosis (5.6-7.1 cases per 10K population over the five-year period 2012-2016, second only to Portugal) among all countries in the EU. In contrast, the incidence rates in the UK over the same period were significantly higher (12-15 cases per 10K). Why are the Irish figures so low? Perhaps the Irish eat fewer eggs than the others. Perhaps most Salmonella infections are due not to eggs, but to other contaminated foods or poor kitchen hygiene. While vaccination of chickens against Salmonella is effective against egg-based Salmonella infection alone, without a detailed breakdown of numbers, we cannot tell what's its impact on the overall incidence rate.
    - cameldrv 8y ago
      You can look at the study she's referencing to the interviewer. It's pretty persuasive. Take a look at Figure 1. https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/56/5/705/347767 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/56/5/705/347767 I'm not saying that the only way to control Salmonella is vaccination, but it is clearly an extremely effective method.
- zaarn 8y ago
  Germany (not the EU) has a 3 times lower salmonella rate than the US (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19816018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19816018)
- ar0 8y ago
  Do you have a source for this? It seems to be difficult to get exact numbers on this, but the BBC quotes data (for the UK and for “developed European countries”, whatever that means, so not exactly for the EU, and comparing to North America instead of just the US) that seem to suggest the opposite: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47440562 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47440562
TheRealPomax 8y ago
It's genuinely baffling.

cm2012 8y ago

EU has a higher salmonella rate than the USA.

AlisdairO 8y ago
Uk, which does this properly, has a vastly lower rate.
cameldrv 8y ago
In the U.K., from roughly 1995 to 2008, the number of vaccinated chickens went from 0% to 85%, and the rate of Salmonella went down by about 87.5%. https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/01/poultry-vaccinations-credited-for-uks-big-drop-in-salmonella/ https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/01/poultry-vaccinations-...
- The_suffocated 8y ago
  The interviewee in the news report you've mentioned was probably cherry-picking. She said that "the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of illness dropped from more than 18,000 in 1993 to just 459 in 2010", but that 459 figure is most likely an outlier. According to Annual Epidemiological Report for 2016: Salmonellosis (https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/AER_for_2016-salmonellosis.pdf https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/AER_for_...), there were 8K to 10K confirmed Salmonella cases per year in the UK from 2012 to 2016. On the other hand, according to Galiş et al. (2013), "Control of Salmonella Contamination of Shell Eggs—Preharvest and Postharvest Methods: A Review" (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12007 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.1...), vaccination of chickens against Salmonella is _banned_ in Ireland. Yet, the country has the second lowest incidence rate of Salmonellosis (5.6-7.1 cases per 10K population over the five-year period 2012-2016, second only to Portugal) among all countries in the EU. In contrast, the incidence rates in the UK over the same period were significantly higher (12-15 cases per 10K). Why are the Irish figures so low? Perhaps the Irish eat fewer eggs than the others. Perhaps most Salmonella infections are due not to eggs, but to other contaminated foods or poor kitchen hygiene. While vaccination of chickens against Salmonella is effective against egg-based Salmonella infection alone, without a detailed breakdown of numbers, we cannot tell what's its impact on the overall incidence rate.
  - cameldrv 8y ago
    You can look at the study she's referencing to the interviewer. It's pretty persuasive. Take a look at Figure 1. https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/56/5/705/347767 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/56/5/705/347767 I'm not saying that the only way to control Salmonella is vaccination, but it is clearly an extremely effective method.
zaarn 8y ago
Germany (not the EU) has a 3 times lower salmonella rate than the US (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19816018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19816018)
ar0 8y ago
Do you have a source for this? It seems to be difficult to get exact numbers on this, but the BBC quotes data (for the UK and for “developed European countries”, whatever that means, so not exactly for the EU, and comparing to North America instead of just the US) that seem to suggest the opposite: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47440562 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47440562

TheRealPomax 8y ago

It's genuinely baffling.