Chickens destroyed after salmonella outbreak

VETERINARY Service Phidias Loukaides said yesterday a batch of chickens from a farm in Cyprus had been found to have a mild case of salmonella and had been destroyed.

Some of the chickens, which were raised at an unidentified farm on the island, were carrying a mild bacterial strand of salmonella, which could lead to stronger strands of salmonella such as salmonella enteritidis – which is found in eggs.

Some reports said infected eggs had also been found and might even have made it on to the market, but Loukaides denied this.

“In an inspection we carried out on a farm in the middle of last month, we discovered some mild brands of salmonella in some chickens. We kept all the chickens under observation and after running tests on them we discovered that the eggs were not infected at all. However, because we did not want to take any chances, all the eggs and chickens were destroyed.”

According to America’s ‘Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’, most types of salmonella live in the intestinal tracts of animals and birds and are transmitted to humans by contaminated foods of animal origin. Stringent procedures for cleaning and inspecting eggs were implemented in the 1970s and have made salmonellosis caused by external faecal contamination of eggshells extremely rare.

Some ways to reduce the risk of salmonella poisoning are:
• Keeping eggs refrigerated.
• Discarding cracked or dirty eggs.
• Washing hands and cooking utensils with soap and water after contact with raw eggs.
• Eating eggs promptly after cooking. Do not keep eggs warm for more than 2 hours.
• Refrigerating unused or leftover egg-containing foods.
• Avoid eating raw eggs (as in homemade ice cream or eggnog). Commercially manufactured ice cream and eggnog are made with pasteurised eggs and have not been linked with salmonella enteritidis infections.
• Avoid restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurised eggs. Restaurants should use pasteurised eggs in any recipe (such as Hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing) that calls for pooling of raw eggs.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.