chicken and factory farms

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1-27-09 RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Recent studies point to the environmental impact of factory-farmed poultry. In one, published in this month’s Journal of Infection and Public Health, cars driving behind open-crate poultry trucks taking livestock from farms to slaughterhouses were contaminated with harmful bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains. A second analysis suggests that poultry plants are significant polluters.

THE DETAILS: Johns Hopkins researchers took air and surface samples from cars driving behind poultry trucks for 17 miles. The cars’ air-conditioners and fans were turned off, but the windows were fully open during the ride. Bacteria that don’t respond to antibiotics were found on and in the cars, but were absent from cars not driven behind the chicken trucks. The authors note a probable link between the antibiotic-resistant bacteria and concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs)CAFOs are agricultural facilities that house and feed a large number of animals in a confined area for 45 days or more during any 12-month period. Federal regulations require CAFOs to carry a permit and to develop nutrient-management plans designed to keep animal waste from contaminating surface water and groundwater. The number and type(s) of animal(s) the operation houses, and the extent to which waste from the operation could pollute surface water and groundwater, determine whether EPA considers a feeding operation to be a CAFO., where as many as 2 million birds are raised in confinement and routinely fed antibiotics to survive in such close proximity.