Matthew Chalmers
A salmonella outbreak led to supermarkets clearing their shelves, but chicken farming is dangerous in many other ways.
When a chicken processing plant in Hull detected salmonella in its cooked chicken products, major supermarkets rushed to remove hundreds of products from their shelves.
Salmonella is a bacteria that lives in the intestines of animals and can infect animal products, commonly chicken meat and eggs.
It’s a common source of food poisoning and can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and abdominal cramps.
In children and older or more vulnerable people it can even cause death - for example, a UK salmonella outbreak in 2021 infected 500 people and killed 5.
However, salmonella poisoning is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the dangers posed by chicken farming.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are developing in factory farms filled with thousands of animals. Antibiotic-resistant salmonella infections in the US rose from around 159,000 in 2004 to around 222,000 in 2016, and they are becoming more common in the UK too.
These bugs could kill 10 million worldwide by 2050, becoming a bigger killer than cancer, and they already kill more people than malaria or AIDS.
The pandemic risks of chicken farming are huge, and although bird flu is not currently dangerous to humans it could mutate into more dangerous variants.
The Spanish Flu of 1918 was linked to chicken farms in the United States and killed up to 50 million people, many of them young - why would we gamble with factory farming when we know how atrocious pandemics can be?
This recent salmonella outbreak is proof that chicken farming poses a danger to consumers and many greater dangers are growing out of sight.
We can save ourselves from the risks factory farming poses to our health, and the health of our children, by refusing to support it and leaving animal products off our plates.
Join our fast action network today to help stand up for animals.
