# Is the risk of salmonella overrated?



## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

When people found out I was feeding raw, I got a lot of "but you'll get sick!" reactions. I wash up after and am reasonably clean about it but not obsessive. I don't wipe my dog off after he eats, either.

I saw a tv show called "freaky eaters" that shows weird eating habits like eating chalk, wood, etc... and one was a guy that ate raw meat. Including chicken, for five years, and has never got food poisoning.

Yet everywhere you hear about how it can and will kill you.

Is the risk overrated? Does someone who is exposed to a constant, low level, exposure of salmonella get somewhat of a resistance to it?


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## deb9017 (Aug 31, 2010)

I am not sure about the constant exposure causing a resistance to the bacteria. 

However, most people touch raw meat when preparing it for their families. So as long as the same precautions are followed, I don't think you are at any greater risk of getting salmonella from feeding the dogs raw.

What a lot of people don't stop to think about is that kibble is frequently recalled because it is found to be tainted with salmonella. I think people are probably more likely to get it that way, because they are less likely to wash up well after handling kibble than after handling raw meat.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Normal healthy dogs are at a very, very low risk to harmful bacteria. The immune compromised dogs and people are the ones who get sick. So yes most of it is just media hype.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

seems to me we live in a more dangerous world than the one i grew up in...but i don't think the risks are over rated. i think salmonella is just as much a part of our world as it was thirty years ago.......

we utilised common sense approaches to hand washing, food handling....we weren't dealing with farms that had e.coli growing up through the soil and eggs already infected with salmonella.....that part is new and scary.

personally, i blame antibacterial soaps and febreze....and air fresheners..my G'd.....all soaps are antibacterial....and someone please explain to me why my house can't smell like roasting chicken --- it HAS to smell like flowers.

pardon me if i go to the bathroom and do what nature intended. do i really have to spray an air freshener?

i'm one of those people who has an immuno compromised 'condition'.....and i was given hospital acquired MRSA during one of many surgeries....

i feed raw...i wipe my counters, fold the towel where my dogs ate, wash it when it's gross.....use soap and water on the cutting board and utensils i use to get their meals ready...and i wash my hands.

i handle food at least three times a day, just for the dogs....

i wouldn't consider myself 'lucky' lo these past four years, having had seven surgeries during that time...so i doubt luck has anything to do with me staying healthy whilst i feed raw and prepare meat/fish/fowl for dinner....

natalie's right about the immune system...when it takes a little dip, anything can get in....
and salmonella is everywhere...i doubt if one can become resistant to exposure....but the good news is.....wash your hands and use friction...


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## NatureLover (Sep 28, 2010)

*No, the risk is not "overrated",*

... it is just plain false. I have raw fed for 16 years, I do not follow the recommended sanitation rituals like hand-washing and washing countertops and cutting boards with antiseptic cleansers. I never use anything except warm water on my countertops, and sometimes go a whole day without even washing my hands. And when I do, I only use soap if I've been digging in the garden or something. Neither my dog nor I have been sick with anything resembling "salmonella" in all that time. Neither of us has even needed to visit a medical professional of any kind in 10 years.

The whole thing is a self-fulfilling shell game. The doctors see symptoms, they test to see if certain bacteria or viruses are present and if they find them, they automatically conclude that this was the "cause" of the symptoms. But the bacteria and viruses are present in asymptomatic people too. You can't say something is a CAUSE of a disease unless disease is found wherever the thing is found. Bacteria, "bad" and "good", are EVERYWHERE. 

Even the deified progenitor of the germ theory, Louis Pasteur, confessed on his deathbed that "the terrain" was the important thing, "not the germ". There is a lot more to the story, and it's all in the historical record. Pasteur was actually a fame-seeking wannabe who stole a colleague's information and peddled it as his own before the work was even completed. Henry Bechamp, the true scientist Pasteur stole from, later found that germs were not the cause of disease, but by that time the industries which profited from the idea were aready using it to their advantage. Now, some 160 years later, it gets taught in all the medical schools, and nobody dares question it. 

There are lots of books which explain the truth about the germ theory. My favorites are "Goodbye Germ Theory" by Dr. William Trebing, "Bechamp or Pasteur: A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology" by E. Douglas Hume, "Toxemia Explained" by John Tilden and "The Great AIDS Hoax" by TC Fry. There are many more. Many brilliant, learned authors have attempted to get the truth out but unfortunately the germ theory makes lots of people rich, so it's like swimming against a tsunami. Here's a short 20-page essay if you don't want to buy a book: Article: Germ Theory. And there's a lengthy chapter in the Life Science Course on it as well: here:Contagion, Epidemics


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I loathe antibiotics and antibacterial cleaners. I go out of my way to avoid them at all costs. They do more harm than good. I clean with non-antibacterial soaps and warm water. We clean our meat only plastic cutting board with hydrogen peroxide every couple of weeks. 

Ever wonder why allergies are getting worse and worse for people as a whole? It's because kids are growing up in "sterile" environments. Their immune systems get bored and start attacking normal, everyday things. I grew up in what would be considered a "dirty" household and I only have an allergic reaction to an antibiotic...go figure LOL


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## spookychick13 (Jan 26, 2010)

Agreed with Danemomma!!

I like this line of products a LOT, they work well and smell fantastic:
http://www.mrsmeyers.com/


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Crikey, Natalies post could be mine, ditto, ditto, and ditto. No anti-bacterial anything in my house. I clean everything with detergent and water, thats it unless its super bad and then it'll get window cleaner. I struggle to remember to wash my hands before I eat, if thats classified as yucky, well, sorry. My germaholic mother in law is constantly sick, and that just drives it home to me even more. 
And, like Natalie again, the only reaction I've ever had to anything has been an anti-biotic, that left me feeling like crap for 6 months.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I don't always wash my hands before eating either...it's normal. The people who DO wash their hands before every meal are the weirdos...just sayin' LOL!!!!


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## deb9017 (Aug 31, 2010)

danemama08 said:


> I don't always wash my hands before eating either...it's normal. The people who DO wash their hands before every meal are the weirdos...just sayin' LOL!!!!




I feel so much better now! I actually thought everyone else WAS washing their hands before they ate and that I am some kind of freak!!


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

I don't wash my hands before I eat. :smile:


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## spookychick13 (Jan 26, 2010)

danemama08 said:


> I don't always wash my hands before eating either...it's normal. The people who DO wash their hands before every meal are the weirdos...just sayin' LOL!!!!


I only do when I'm at work or touched something icky.

I think it's a little OCD to do it all the time.
I have a friend who does it at restaurants before we eat.
I'd honestly think washing your hands in the bathroom at a restaurant and then touching the exit door, when you know most people DON'T wash their hands after using the toilet, is counteractive!


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## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

danemama08 said:


> I loathe antibiotics and antibacterial cleaners. I go out of my way to avoid them at all costs. They do more harm than good. I clean with non-antibacterial soaps and warm water. We clean our meat only plastic cutting board with hydrogen peroxide every couple of weeks.
> 
> Ever wonder why allergies are getting worse and worse for people as a whole? It's because kids are growing up in "sterile" environments. Their immune systems get bored and start attacking normal, everyday things. I grew up in what would be considered a "dirty" household and I only have an allergic reaction to an antibiotic...go figure LOL


Haha, well I definitely agree about the overuse of antibacterial soaps and sanitizers, etc. But I seriously doubt allergies are caused by our immune systems being bored or from things being too clean! I am allergic to every tree, grass, flower, and animals, soybeans..you name it! (That's why I have a poodle - I am less allergic to her). Anyway, there was no overuse of antibacterial products while I was growing up. Gosh, I wish it was that simple to prevent one from developing allergies though! I'd be making my future kids roll around in mud!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

deb9017 said:


> I feel so much better now! I actually thought everyone else WAS washing their hands before they ate and that I am some kind of freak!!


it just seems that way. on television.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

deb9017 said:


> I am not sure about the constant exposure causing a resistance to the bacteria.
> 
> However, most people touch raw meat when preparing it for their families. So as long as the same precautions are followed, I don't think you are at any greater risk of getting salmonella from feeding the dogs raw.
> 
> What a lot of people don't stop to think about is that kibble is frequently recalled because it is found to be tainted with salmonella. I think people are probably more likely to get it that way, because they are less likely to wash up well after handling kibble than after handling raw meat.


i agree that it's not exposure. 

it's called homeostasis.....body balance....the immune system has little rises and dips...like tiny little waves....

put too many stressors on the immune system and something will get in.

the brain is so remarkable, like a general, sending all kinds of cells to take care of this, clean up that.....but if the general has a nervous breakdown, then what would not get in gets in....

we have staph on our skin. i was sick already with something else. i got mrsa.
not so incredible....my immune system was compromised. it couldn't fight a battle on three fronts. neither could hitler and look what happened to him LOL


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