Thursday, April 21, 2011

CLUCK NEWS: Bacteria-contaminated chicken apparently common in stores

AOLNews is reporting on two recent investigations that suggest large percentages of chicken meat sold in stores is likely to be contaminated with problematic bacteria, some of it antibiotic resistant. One nationwide study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reported that when they looked at 80 different brands of beef, chicken, pork and turkey (some from Fort Lauderdale) nearly half of the meat and poultry samples (47%) were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureusAnd more than half of those were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics.

Another recent study was conducted  analyzed "100 packages of chicken parts and fryers from 10 Seattle-area groceries during March. The analysis of these samples found that 65 percent of the birds tested had campylobacter, 19 percent had Salmonella and 2 percent had E. coli or listeria." Some had Staphyloccoccus aureus, including Multi-drug Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), which is very difficult to treat.


Tuesday, April 19, 2011

CLUCK Blog sets new record: 20,000 pageviews

What was once just a local chicken blog has caught on and is being viewed by chicken lovers and the chicken curious across the nation and planet. We started tracking pageviews last June and have been surprised at the responses. Pageviews peaked in January, the high-profile month the local City ordinance passed (see figure). Then numbers dipped in February as expected. But they started to rebuild in March (exceeding December) and the numbers for April (which is only 2/3rds over) have already exceeded total pageviews for January.The reason? With more than 130 distinct posts, the blog is becoming a go-to resource for people outside of Sarasota. 

CLUCK Chicken Advocacy Groups Proliferate

Wow. Check out C.L.U.C.K. on Facebook sometime. There are now thirteen backyard chicken advocacy CLUCK groups with Facebook pages across North America, and all seem to incorporate some acronym. More than a third are in Canada. The largest CLUCK group? Our own SARASOTA C.L.U.C.K. with nearly 600 members. The next closest has less than half that number.