Mice Direct FDA Recall

[Wh00h0069]

What kind of grubby nasty person handles Frozen rats with their bare hands and doesn't wash them..

If we were lower life form's this would be called natural selection, the stupid ones die off and the other's move on with life..

Jesus..PEOPLE IF YOU HANDLE any kind of animal flesh please wash your damn grubby hands before you go chewing on your finger nails.. Or don't whine about being stupid and getting sick..

[kellysballs]

I am going to start by saying I have absolutely no dog in this fight. I feed live. But some of the ignorance(I'm using this word in the nicest possible way) being spewed on this thread is a little more than I can take.

I am not trying to attack but to educate.

man you people are harsh look the other way when somebody goes and poisons over a dozen people in over a dozen states. but jump on the guy who say they need to get stricter rules to operate to make sure they keep people safe. guess everybody can see who could careless about other humans lives kids included.

Really? I mean REALLY????? You honestly think this way?
"somebody" didn't poison 17 people. 17 people did not practice effective hand washing or sanitary techniques when dealing with RAW DEAD ANIMALS.

also think about it how is washing your hands going to get rid of it you before you can wash your hands have to turn on the water then wash your hands then turn the water off so unless somebody figured out a hands free in-home water faucet. just washing your hands does no good cause you got to touch what was contaminated to turn the water on to wash your hands thus getting the virus back on your hands

Again you MUST be kidding, right?!? My 9yr old knows how to properly wash her hands. Please do yourself a favor take just one microbiology course. You'll feel better knowing how to properly wash your hands and sanitize your living area.

There are (according to Bergies Manual 9th edition) 1200 strains of Salmonella that exist. But a quick web search will tell you there are over 2500 species. Wonder which of them these 17 cases contracted?The only effective way to test which species is present is with antigens and that is expensive. You can test fairly inexpensively the type, but that will include MANY different species. Of the different types only certain ones are found in reptiles.

Here is an example: Last semester I was in Microbiology and I took an active air sample for bacteria inside the micro lab. (The micro lab is a very clean environment we sanitized floors, tables and counter tops daily.) Once I grew the bacteria colonies I collected, I tested it to see what I had. One of the bacteria types that grew on the plate was a species of Salmonella (didn't have antigens so I couldn't test it to the species level). And this was floating around in the air! So I really wonder just where these people actually contracted their strain of salmonella from.

Mice Direct seems to be taking the steps to deal with the problem but the fact of the matter is bacteria is every where and even once the rats are treated they will still have bacteria present. Especially when they sit on your counter all day and defrost.

The lesson to be learned here is WASH YOUR HANDS and SANITIZE YOUR AREA! Boycotts are not necessary, government oversight is not necessary. A little bit of personal responsibility is what is necessary here.

For those of you who are yelling about the mice direct facility being dirty, their animals being sick and Mice direct not following proper handling procedures for preparing their product.

I just want to know if you eat meat because I guarantee that the slaughter house your beef, chicken, pork and turkey come from is way nastier. Did you really think your hamburger came from a totally healthy cow ?

In the end it really doesn't matter if the rats are irradiated. You just can't regulate stupid. If people continue to not follow proper sanitation procedures when handling raw meat they will continue to get sick. Raw chicken for human consumption is irradiated, are you going to rub it all over your hands then eat a sandwich? No your probably not.

[jkobylka]

Being close to Mice Direct, I've been speaking with them throughout this process. A few things to remember:

1. FDA is on a hunt right now for salmonella in the pet food industry, because people handle the pet food. They are extremely thorough and I suspect that they would find contamination MANY rodent breeding operations. (On a side note, if salmonella is introduced to a colony at any point, *and there are MANY ways that can happen* there is no way to know you've eliminated it except by replacing the entire colony)
   
2. The rodents are extremely healthy, they are carriers of salmonella. Just like reptiles are.
   
3. The FDA microbiologist has assured them that this type of salmonella has no affect on reptiles, so there is no chance peoples reptiles will be affected
   
4. They have voluntarily began this irradiation process effectively deals with the salmonella. They are irradiating to levels that are even higher than what is required for human consumption. This process doesn't change the look, smell or taste of the rodents.

So in the end...

1. Yes they have a problem, it's a problem that only affects people who handle the rodents and do not wash their hands...
   
2. They are going above and beyond to fix the problem, possibly giving them one of the cleanest final product available.
   
3. They are happy to assist anyone who wishes to replace their recalled product with the new irradiated product.

I hope this is helpful!

Justin

[izoid]

I think the fact that the microbiologist has assured us that our reptiles will not be harmed by this strain is encouraging. My fear all along is not so much for myself but for my reptiles, even though I do lick each and evry rodent prior to feeding....just to ensure it tastes good.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Percentage of supermarket chicken contaminated with salmonella: 15%
Percentage of supermarket chicken contaminated with campylobacter: 80%

Where does salmonella come from?
Salmonella lives in the intestinal tracts of living animals. Some strains of salmonella are pathogenic (they cause disease), while others do not cause disease.

Salmonella contamination in meat occurs when the intestinal contents or feces come into contact with the meat.

Obviously a whole, frozen animal contains the entire gut contents, including the intestinal flora. If the animal is harboring any strain of salmonella, it will be ingested along with the gut contents. This is harmless to a snake, which cannot generally contract the strains of salmonella found in mammals.

In short, unless you are eating whole, raw rodents yourself, or are foolish enough not to wash your hands after handling them, you aren't going to catch salmonella from frozen feeders, and neither are your snakes.

Salmonella cannot be reliably tested for, because if it is present in an animal, it frequently is shed in cycles, and not all at once. A fecal test may come up clean one day, and contaminated the next.

By the way, every single last one of your frozen feeders from any supplier also contains e-coli bacteria. So do you. Tsk tsk.

[Aes_Sidhe]

Ehhh... I just try to be informative and this is why i post That info..
Now I see That we have little war going on here.. and That wasn't my intention at all... *sighs*

[Raptor]

thats OK MarkS i use plastic not paper so go try to collect elsewhere

man you people are harsh look the other way when somebody goes and poisons over a dozen people in over a dozen states. but jump on the guy who say they need to get stricter rules to operate to make sure they keep people safe. guess everybody can see who could careless about other humans lives kids included. i'm sorry what did your mom or dad drop you on your head as a baby

heck I've seen people get more outraged for getting an over cooked steak then you guys get from possibly being poisoned

if you read there way of dealing with it notice they only agreed to cover cost of left over food not cover med bill of anybody infected that had to go to the ER or miss work


also think about it how is washing your hands going to get rid of it you before you can wash your hands have to turn on the water then wash your hands then turn the water off so unless somebody figured out a hands free in-home water faucet. just washing your hands does no good cause you got to touch what was contaminated to turn the water on to wash your hands thus getting the virus back on your hands



Raptor that is true not all will show signs of being sick but there will be sick ones in the population might only be 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 but still they should check there sick animals there was warning signs before they ever gassed the animals to begin with Evan if only a dozen were sick in a whole plant of thousands of rodents. i to have had females drop dead litery in minutes of checking on them case in point. i just had a female die that was very heavily pregnant put her thing by herself went pee came back and she was dead so yes i know animals drop dead showing no signs but if you are running a business and say day before you had none drop dead then next day you got a dozen or half dozen dead that are close together in racks for respect for your customer wouldn't you go test some of your animals to make sure the rest don't die cause if not your running a very crappy business and just in it for the money. treating your customers right is what makes a good business grow while making a crappy one disappear.

like i said they are doing the right thing by showing they are trying to make sure this never happens again. and there not playing the blame game by trying to pass the buck they manned up and said OK lets fix this and make sure it never happens from us again. now since they did that the government needs to step forward and require all f/t foods be done this way no matter what or shut them down till they comply

MarkS i noticed how they left out info on old reports of money having cocaine and other drugs on money

Again. Run on sentences are bad. I'm getting tired of rereading your posts in order to understand what you're saying.

Not all animals are going to get sick from salmonella considering most of them carry it. The only ones that's going to get sick are ones that are young/old/extremely sick to begin with.

As a fyi, your dog/cat/bird/horse/etc can all carry salmonella. As can the chicken you buy from the store. Why do you think people are always saying to sanitize after handling raw chicken? Pork is also the same way, but I think that's due to worms.

[loonunit]

What kind of grubby nasty person handles Frozen rats with their bare hands and doesn't wash them..

If we were lower life form's this would be called natural selection, the stupid ones die off and the other's move on with life..

Jesus..PEOPLE IF YOU HANDLE any kind of animal flesh please wash your damn grubby hands before you go chewing on your finger nails.. Or don't whine about being stupid and getting sick..

Children, apparently. We all know kids aren't so careful with hand washing, and are most vulnerable. Apparently 2/3s of the cases are kids of snake owners.

That statistic kinda freaks me out.

[SquamishSerpents]

please read this everybody!!!! Nanci, a very active memeber of "the other snake site" cornsnakes.com, as spoken directly with Mice Direct to get more information:

"I spoke with Jenea Wood last night about the recall. She is a distributor. She is also a CS.com member. This is what Jenea told me:

There isn't anything wrong with Mice Direct's Rodents. FDA has been investigating links between handling Rodents and getting Salmonella. There isn't any case against Mice Direct specifically - just general cases linking the handling of rats/mice & getting Salmonella. They chose to start their investigation at the Mice Direct facility. There are 17 cases linked with frozen feeders, not 17 cases linked with Mice Direct.

It is a fact that Mice & Rats carry Salmonella, so it is no surprise that the FDA found Salmonella in Mice Direct's products. The simple truth is that their Rodents are completely safe to use FOR THEIR INTENDED PURPOSE - Feeding your pet Reptiles. And people need to wash their hands after touching them. Most people know this-

Mice Direct has fully cooperated with the FDA and has already begun the process of Irradiating all products before they ship -- Something that no other Rodent dealer is doing. Expect to see Rodent Pro, American Rodent & the others to be held to same standards.

We have been aware of the FDA's arrival on the farm for a few weeks, and have been in communication through the entire proceedings. The media has twisted and blown out of proportion (just like they always do) everything that is going on. The short of it is, the FDA is trying to determine if they need to regulate frozen feeders like they regulate dog food production, and Mice Direct has become the media punching bag for the all the frozen feeder producers.

Jenea Wood

*********************************************

Here is a link to the statement on the Mice Direct site:

https://micedirect.com/2010recall/index.htm

Valued customers,

This is to inform you that MiceDirect has issued a voluntary recall. Over the years we have regularly tested our rodents for any potential issues. During one of these recent tests it was detected that a portion of our rodents may be potentially carrying Salmonella. Because of this we are offering a voluntary recall option to our customers.

Facts:

This particular type of Salmonella cannot be passed to your reptile. Reptiles carry other specific strains.

Salmonella is common in almost all groups of both domestic and wild animals
Salmonella can make you sick, small children and frail or elderly people are more susceptible.
Washing your hands prevents this risk of illness from Salmonella. Please wash your hands when handling.


When handling raw product, such as rodents, chicken, pork, beef or any dead animal, it is very important to thoroughly wash your hands. Washing your hands should keep you from becoming sick in the event you come into contact with Salmonella.

What we are doing:

We begun a voluntary program to irradiate all pet food products.

All of our products starting on July 24, 2010 are irradiated, in a similar manner to raw food for human consumption.
We are irradiating our products at a level equivalent to the standards for human consumption.
This product continues to be fully acceptable for consuming reptiles.
You can be confident that our quality standards meet or exceed the standards currently held by other companies.



You can be confident that our quality standards are superior.

Recall Information:

If you have unused product that was purchased between May 2009 and July 23, 2010, please contact us. We are happy to replace product purchased between the above stated dates with our new irradiated product at your request.

We take the quality of our product very seriously. Please contact us for further assistance.

To view our official press release you may Click Here.

Sincerely,

John Callaham

JULY 28, 2010

**********************

I feel quite reassured. I didn't take into consideration a fact which I knew- salmonella is species-specific. So while it's too bad this type can infect humans, what I was really worried about was my snakes!!

Anyway, it sounds like the replacement process should be quite straight forward. "

taken directly from this thread.

[Jeremy78]

I knew that I saw this somewhere!