Is there any disease that a chicken has that it would not be ok to eat the eggs?

-- Stacie Howk (goochy@yhti.net), January 17, 2002

Answers

I wouldn't think that really sick hens would lay many eggs. If you are wondering about some symptom free silent disease that is passed on to humans ( I think I mean like a disease that chickens are a "carrier" for...) I have never heard of any.....

-- Tana Mc (mcfarm@totelcsi.net), January 17, 2002.

Just curious, where did Chicken Pox get its name?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

even if they do,, it should be fine as long as you cook the eggs

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 17, 2002.

You should make sure to clean the eggs right before cooking. We sometimes get manure on the eggs (all come out of the same place). We just wait until right before we are going to cook them, to clean them. Seems the egg has a natural coating to keep bacteria from entering the egg. If you wash this coating off, you may be asking for trouble. If you worm your chickens, some of the wormers advise not eating the eggs for 7 days. Seems its a taste thing....

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), January 17, 2002.

Yes. It's called salmonella. It can infect chicken flesh. It can infect eggs. It can also get into eggs from chicken manure - particularly in wet conditions. It CANNOT survive cooking, so cook thoroughly. It certainly can survive eggs being used raw, so be very careful you know the quality of any eggs you use in mayonnaise, if you have to use mayonnaise. Raw animal protein of any type is chancy healthwise, although I do like steak tartare and its Korean counterpart, and sushi.

Ken, interesting question! I did some digging, and so far as I can make out the term "chicken pox" is sort of an accidental pun. It sort of arises from the Latin for "scar tissue" (cicatrix), and the latin for "chick peas" (cicer) [and remember those Latin "c"'s are often pronounced "ch"], and since chicken pox gives you chick-pea sized and shaped scars (and scabs) - well, that more or less accounts (via an ancient French term "cicer poid" for chick pea) for the term "chicken pox". Nothing to do with chickens at all.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 17, 2002.

If the chickens show tendencies of being democRATS, I would be very, very careful. GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), January 17, 2002.

Thanks for all the immediate answers. This is the first time I have had chickens and have had some respitory problems with them. So I just wanted to make sure that the eggs was not affected. They stopped laying for awhile and just now starting to lay again.

-- Stacie (goochy@yhti.net), January 18, 2002.

I don't know anyone who would eat the eggs/meat of any bird who is 'off.' Most folks don't know how to diagnose disease. They guess at medications, which also may make the eggs/meat unsafe to eat. Just my opinion.

Some Of The Diseases

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), January 19, 2002.