Washington—Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) today urged the Department of Agriculture to finalize pathogen standards for Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry products. The draft standards were released in January.

The senators wrote: “We write to urge you to finalize the department’s proposed performance standards to control Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry products as quickly as possible. Public health is at stake, and we believe the department should act swiftly to implement these safeguards.”

Full text of the letter is included below:

June 4, 2015

The Honorable Thomas J. Vilsack
Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

We write to urge you to finalize the department’s proposed performance standards to control Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry products as quickly as possible. The department designed the new pathogen standards to reduce the number of foodborne illnesses and deaths attributed to poultry products. Public health is at stake and we believe the department should act swiftly to implement these new safeguards.

We are deeply troubled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2014 Food Safety Progress Report. A copy of the report is attached for your reference. It shows that the United States has not made progress in reducing the number of Salmonella illnesses that occur each year, which is alarming. Furthermore, the CDC found that in 2014, Campylobacter illnesses increased by 13 percent over the baseline number of annual illnesses that occurred from 2006 to 2008. Delays in finalizing the pathogen standards for poultry products allow these high rates of foodborne illness to persist.

These alarming rates of foodborne illness are caused, in part, by the unacceptably high levels of Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination on poultry products. Routine testing done in 2013 by the department found that more than 40 percent of ground chicken tested positive for Salmonella. A 2012 study found that 26 percent of poultry parts tested positive for Salmonella and 21 percent tested positive for Campylobacter. As of today, there are no pathogen standards for poultry parts and the standards for ground poultry are sorely outdated.

Thank you for your attention to our request on this important public health matter.

Sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

Kirsten Gillibrand
United States Senator

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