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around the world. Just as the feeding of dead animals to live ones triggered the mad cow crisis, this same practice has also been implicated in the global spread of salmonella. Once egg production wanes, hens may be ground up and rendered into what is called “spent hen meal,” and then fed to other hens. More than half of the feed samples for farmed birds containing slaughter-plant waste tested by the FDA were found to be contaminated with salmonella. CDC researchers have estimated that more than 1,000,000 cases of salmonella poisoning in Americans can be directly tied to feed containing animal by-products.

KF: What happens to the body when salmonella gets into the system?

MG: Within twelve to seventy-two hours of infection the fever, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps start. If the victim is lucky it’s over within a week. If not, the bacteria can burrow through the intestinal wall and infect the bloodstream, seeding its way to other organs, including the heart, bones, and brain.

KF: Are there any long-term consequences from exposure?

MG: Thanks to salmonella infection, one breakfast omelet can now trigger persistent irritable bowel syndrome and what’s called reactive arthritis, which can become a debilitating lifelong condition of swollen painful joints. Because salmonella can infect the ovaries of hens, eggs from infected birds can be laid prepackaged with the bacteria inside. According to research funded by the American Egg Board, salmonella can survive sunny-side up, over-easy, and scrambled egg cooking methods.

KF: Would free-range meat or eggs be less likely to be contaminated?

MG: There is evidence that eggs from cage-free hens pose less of a threat. In the largest study of its kind (analyzing more than 30,000 samples taken from more than 5,000 operations across two dozen countries in Europe) cage-free barns had about 40 percent lower odds of harboring the egg-related strain of salmonella.

KF: Can we get salmonella just from touching something tainted?

MG: Absolutely; in fact the infective dose for salmonella is as few as fifteen to twenty bacteria, and a single egg can be infected with hundreds. It’s important to understand where the egg comes out. Eggs emerge from the hen’s vent, which is kind of a joint opening for both her vagina and anus, which explains the level of fecal contamination one can find on eggs.

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CDC researchers have estimated that more than 1 million cases of salmonella poisoning in Americans can be directly tied to feed containing animal byproducts.

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KF: Is it contagious?

MG: Person-to-person transmission of salmonella can occur when an infected person’s feces, unwashed from his or her hands, contaminates food during preparation or comes into direct contact with another person.

KF: Who is most at risk for serious illness or even death?

MG: More than half of all reported salmonella infections occur in children, who are especially susceptible to serious complications. Elderly and immunocompromised adults are also particularly vulnerable. In the United States, though, some strains of salmonella are growing dangerously resistant to up to six major classes of antibiotics, due in large part to the irresponsible factory-farming practice of feeding millions of pounds of antibiotics to animals every year as a crutch to combat the stressful and overcrowded conditions of intensive animal agriculture systems. This puts everyone at risk.

KF: What is the overall solution to prevent these dangerous pathogens and bacteria?

MG: Over the last few decades new animal-to-human infectious diseases have emerged at an unprecedented rate. According to the World Health Organization, the increasing global demand for animal protein is a key underlying factor.

Swine flu is not the only deadly human disease traced to factory-farming practices. The meat industry took natural herbivores like cows and sheep and turned them into carnivores and cannibals by feeding them slaughterhouse waste, blood, and manure. Then they fed people “downer” animals—too sick to even walk. Now the world has