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# To the Editor:  "Unhygienic Egg" Story is also Untrue
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/unhygienic_egg_story_is_also_untrue_0422150224/
- Published: 2015-04-22T15:23:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:49:27.000Z
- Description: A letter to the editor disputing an earlier article on bird flu, arguing that FDA salmonella rules and federal inspections already cover commercial egg farms and that USDA's findings of the virus in small backyard flocks undercut blaming high-volume production.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Letter to Editor, Opinion, #vivvo-import

Dear Editor:

Publishing today's article “Unhygienic Egg Production Behind Bird Flu in the U.S.” is unworthy of your readers due to the many untrue statements.

[http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite /Safety/biological/bird\_flu\_in\_us \_0422150941.html](https://www.foodconsumer.org/bird%5Fflu%5Fin%5Fus%5F0422150941/)  

The author from United Poultry Concerns is more agenda-driven rather than fact-driven. Today’s modern conventional egg farm is regulated for food safety under the FDA egg safely law known as “Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage, and Transportation. The FDA rule includes sanitation procedures along with cleaning and disinfection which are overseen by federal inspectors coming to every commercial egg farm. The farms are also routinely swabbed to determine if Salmonella is even in the environment let along the chicken or the eggs. 

The author’s claims that “ high volume” as evident in today’s commercial egg industry contributes to the spread of this virus is unfounded. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service Avian influenza is a viral disease that can infect wild birds (such as ducks, gulls, and shorebirds) as well as domestic poultry (such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese). This current outbreak has USDA reporting a number of flocks with this disease including a number of small backyard flocks, one with only 10 birds. This certainly disputes the claims of “high volume” is behind the disease. This is a flu for birds just as there is for people—and, as with people, some forms of the flu are worse than others. HPAI can spread fast and quickly kill chickens and turkeys. Wild birds, however, can carry HPAI viruses without appearing sick. Since December 2014, USDA has confirmed several cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 in the Pacific, Central, and Mississippi flyways (or migratory bird paths). The disease has been found in wild birds, as well as in a few backyard and commercial poultry flocks. 

Food Consumer readers should instead be informed that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections to be low. No human cases of these HPAI H5 viruses have been detected in the United States, Canada, or internationally. As to other allegations in the article, it is not true that farm workers “faint and sustain burned lungs” from the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and ammonia. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates worker conditions. OSHA would never tolerate conditions that cause workers to faint or sustain burned lungs.

It’s unfortunate that the author with United Poultry Concerns would use the unfortunate circumstance of a poultry disease to bring out misinformation supporting their misguided agenda. Hopefully your readers will realize this also.

Ken Klippen

*National Association of Egg Farmers*

[*www.eggfarmers.org*](http://www.eggfarmers.org/?ref=foodconsumer.org)

Email: [info@eggfarmers.org](mailto:info@eggfarmers.org)

*After Ken Klippen's article was posted, Marth Rosenberg, author of the* [*original report*](https://www.foodconsumer.org/bird%5Fflu%5Fin%5Fus%5F0422150941/) *sent the following:*

**Response to Ken Klippen of National Association of Egg Farmers Who Defends Modern Egg Production**

While it is no surprise that the National Association of Egg Farmers would object to my recent story on Food Consumer (“[Unhygienic Egg Production Behind Bird Flu in the U.S](https://www.foodconsumer.org/bird%5Fflu%5Fin%5Fus%5F0422150941/).”) I stand by my story. Ken Klippen of the National Association of Egg Farmers claims that the FDA guidance addressing “Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Transportation, and Storage” has solved the problems I cite, the guidance addresse egg safety and salmonella not bird treatment or the current flu epidemic.

Certainly it is true that wild birds also get the flu and, as Klippern writes, “This is a flu for birds just as there is for people—and, as with people, some forms of the flu are worse than others.” But people and wild birds are not crammed by the thousands over their own waste in windowless barns. Nor do federal or FDA laws address this inhumane crowding—animal advocates have gone directly to food consumers with referendums about this cruelty.

Killeen does not refute the way these hens are killed because it is true. 

He questions that humans have suffered lung damage from being in the egg barns for a few minutes so I will quote the Sun Journal from April 11, 2009\. A story titled says State Workers Fall Ill After Egg Farm Investigation” reads: 

Four workers from the Maine Department of Agriculture were treated by doctors when they became ill after investigating animal-cruelty allegations at a Turner egg farm last week, state officials said Friday.

"After the raid, four employees felt burning in the nose and eyes, coughing, tightness of breath, and they sought medical attention for ammonia exposure," said David Farmer, deputy chief of staff for Gov. John Baldacci. All four missed some work time but none was out for more than a day and a half, Farmer said. (Martha Rosenberg)