Is Peanut Butter Suet Safe From Salmonella Outbreak?
THERE IS NOW AN UPDATE TO THIS BLOG ENTRY.
Someone asked me yesterday if it is safe to feed peanut butter suet considering the concern over recalled industrial strength peanut butter containing salmonella. This got me wondering if peanut butter suet is a risk for birds and should I stop feeding it? There's not a lot of regulation when it comes to wild bird feed and the Wild Bird Feeding Industry is such a slow moving organization, I doubt they would have answers. I went to three major suet company websites to see if I could get any info. I chose the three companies that I see distributed the most and these are also the three companies who make suet products that I use in my own feeders and like. Here is what I found:
C&S Suet guarantees that their peanut butter suet is 100% safe and free of salmonella.
Pine Tree Farms has no info and no such guarantee on their website. I'm going to try and call them to find out.
The Woodpecker Attractor plugs (and my personal favorite the No Melt Peanut Butter Suet Plugs) also has no info and no guarantees of safely from salmonella on their website. I'm also going to try and call them this week to find out the situation.
Someone asked me yesterday if it is safe to feed peanut butter suet considering the concern over recalled industrial strength peanut butter containing salmonella. This got me wondering if peanut butter suet is a risk for birds and should I stop feeding it? There's not a lot of regulation when it comes to wild bird feed and the Wild Bird Feeding Industry is such a slow moving organization, I doubt they would have answers. I went to three major suet company websites to see if I could get any info. I chose the three companies that I see distributed the most and these are also the three companies who make suet products that I use in my own feeders and like. Here is what I found:
C&S Suet guarantees that their peanut butter suet is 100% safe and free of salmonella.
Pine Tree Farms has no info and no such guarantee on their website. I'm going to try and call them to find out.
The Woodpecker Attractor plugs (and my personal favorite the No Melt Peanut Butter Suet Plugs) also has no info and no guarantees of safely from salmonella on their website. I'm also going to try and call them this week to find out the situation.
Labels: bird news
posted by birdchick at 12:05 PM
16 Comments:
The C&S link is broken (too many "http" and virgules).
Cleaned up it works fine, just like their product.
I've bought some of the products in case-lots.
The only problem I've ever had is when they switched from cylinders to cubes. And I think they gave me a break on replacing the cylindrs.
My question is, can birds even catch the same strains of salmonella as humans? Or more so, if they can, will it actually make the them sick. I have looked over Google trying to answer this, inspired by your post, and don't see anything. Although there was some mention that captive birds can sometimes carry salmonella strains, but not become ill from them...hmmm....
Hi Larry,
thanks for the heads up, the links should all be fixed now.
wildwose,
the info I found suggests that there are several strains of salmonella and both birds and mammals can get the same strains:
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/other_diseases/salmonellosis.jsp
Any info on Morning Song from Scotts? It is the only suet available locally now. I work in a grocery store and we had to remove some peanuts as well because of this.
Salmonella is an avian disease primarily. I would think that all strains would be harmful to birds.
When we spoke to the manufacturer of the Attracter plugs they told us that their peanut butter was safe having come from different source than the tainted peanut butter.
C&S told us the same thing.
While I commend all of you for your concerns about possible salmonella contamination of commercial suet products, I am curious about why you use suet at all given its lack of any nutritional value other than energy?
Comesaround -
Birds eat fat, I have seen chickadees, woodpeckers, and jays eating fat off of road kill deer. That's probably where early bird feeding folks got the idea to start offering fat.
Suet, especially some flavored suets, can be a source of protein and fat which birds need for energy, especially in light of the recent ice storms hitting the the central US.
"I am curious about why you use suet at all given its lack of any nutritional value other than energy?"
I learned long ago from people whose opinions I have reason to respect the most animals, including untrained humans, will eat what they need if it is available.
Furthermore, they teach that some species need the energy.
And that the suet resembles fatty grubs.
And that when people say "suet" in this context they mean any of a very broad range or products (when I say it, (unless I am talking about minced meat for pie filling) I mean any of the products marketed by "C & S trough the two store where I trade in such things. (Northwest Feed (http://www.nwfandwfsfeed.com/), and Back Yard Birds (http://www.birdsuppliesusa.info/backyard-birds-inc/804/).)
If you have credentials support the "lack of any nutritional value" thing, publish them here and I'll have a look. But I doubt that I will be suaded, since "energy" is in fact a major nutritional need.
Birdchick,
You are correct that birds do require energy, in fact, lots of it. Flying is very energy intensive. However, there are different kinds of fats with significantly different properties. Since most fats offer the same amount of energy, about 9 calories per gram, other properties such as digestibilty become more important.
You are also correct that suet can be a significant source of energy during inclement weather, however, the protein content in suet is insignificant. During winter when foraging is poor at best, suet and seed mixes, as research has shown, can improve survival rates by up to ten percent. I believe we can do better.
Energy is only one of a broad spectrum of nutrients that are vital for avian health and reproduction. At a time when many species are in decline, I humbly suggest that there are better alternatives to suet.
Larry Sheldon,
I learned long ago from people whose opinions I have reason to respect the most animals, including untrained humans, will eat what they need if it is available.
Unfortunately, this is not always true. For example, most veterinarians will tell you that offering a seed mixture as the primary diet for captive (pet) birds will, over the long term, lead to obesity and declining health due to improper nutrition. Even if a seed mix could be produced that met all the nutritional needs of birds, it still would lead to failing health because birds will preferentially select certain seeds to the exclusion of others. It is common knowledge among those with experience in feeding seed mixes to birds, whether captive or free range, that birds will eat all of the sunflower seeds first and the rest of the mix remains uneaten. Sunflower seeds are typically 50+ percent fat (sunflower oil). In captive birds this results in obesity. In free range birds obesity is not an issue, however, the high fat intake can lead to nutritional deficiencies & imbalances that can impair general health and reproductivity.
I believe I have addressed your other issues above.
You raised the issue of my credentials so I feel obligated to respond. I have a BS in Natural Resource Management and a BA in Environmental Ethics. In addition, I have 30 years experience as an animal care professional.
Again, I humbly suggest that we can do better than suet and seed mixes. Futhermore, as the dominant cause in the decline of native bird populations, I believe we have a moral obligation to do better.
Comesaround,
I think it's good to ask questions. It's nice that you added some credentials to your comment, I'm suspicious of people who are not willing to put their name to their knowledge. It's kind of like wikipedia, just take the info with a grain salt since you don't know the person who wrote it (or their background that makes them such an expert).
You can't really compare a pet bird diet to a wild bird diet. The few studies that have been done show that wild birds do not use a feeding station as their total diet. They fly around to several places to find different types of food. Bird feeders supply at most a fifth of a bird's nutrition, according to a study of black-capped chickadees that researchers say also applies to other species.
So even if you go with the argument that birds are eating the sunflowers first, it's still a small part of their overall diet. Look at the cardinal. All of the proper mixes for cardinals have sunflower as a main ingredient. According to Cornell's Birds of North America Online, their range and population trend is increasing. Does that mean the sunflower is perfect for them? No, but they certainly are suffering a population decrease because of all the people offering it.
Again, it's good to ask questions and there is no doubt that some bird species are in decline, but there are several factors, most notably habitat decline.
Birdchick,
I understand your point about comparing wild bird diets with captive bird diets. I was not comparing their diets, but rather their behaviors in response to the point made by Larry Sheldon that "... will eat what they need if it is available."
I also agree with you about the significance of habitat loss in declining bird populations.
I am sure you will agree that given the harm we have inflicted on wild birds in general due to habitat destruction, we should do everything thing we can to support them.
The point I am trying to make is that suet and seed mixes are intended to bait birds to feeders primarily for our own pleasure. They do not nor were they intended to provide birds with any meaningful nutrition. Why not offer nutritious alternatives like vegetable fats for suet or processed, nutritionally complete diets instead of seed mixes? They would provide a nutritional safety net for birds when foraging is poor thereby reducing or eliminating the nutritional slumps associated with winter or inclement weather. Birds fed balanced diets are ready to nest as soon as the weather permits. They don't have to wait while they recover their strength and health. They never lose it. They can nest more frequently and produce more healthy offspring.
Isn't that what all bird lovers want?
This post has been removed by the author.
This beginning to sound more like anti-human ecoterrorist crap than it is pro-bird anything.
I'm outa here.
(And it looks like the Birdchick is being a little gentler than I am. Just one example of her (and my) point--there is farm land all around here--corn, soy beans or cattle. The birds that visit the feeders here can be by direct observation seen to feed also in the farm land and the woods around us. The nyger feeders do not attract the same birds the oil seed and the suet feeders do. Most of the platform users seldom use any of the hanging feeders--there are exceptions.)
Many of the ingredients offered in wild bird foods, birds already eat in the wild. You grow a sunflower and let it go to seed and it gets devoured by birds. Birds are smart enough to not use humans as a sole source of food.
I'm not a fan of vegetable based suets. Many bird species eat animal fat naturally in the wild, so eating beef suet is not a stretch. I have seen no research that says vegetable suet is safe for birds--apart from a company that manufactures vegetable based. They seem to have some "research" but I don't find that to be unbiased research.
And, Comesaround, I'm getting suspicious of your info. Much of it appears to be pet bird based and sounds quite a bit like the advertising and "research" text on the website of the company that makes vegetable based suet for birds. Since I don't know your name, and when I click on your blogger id and there is no further information about you, I am wondering you might actually work for this suet company and perhaps trying to promote them in my blog?
Thank you for pursuing this on behalf of birdfeeders and birdfeeding hobby stores as well. I had heard C&S's guarantee but still interested in Pine Tree Farm's response.
I 'spect everybody has gone home but I found this (see below) and it seemed timely. And I find it enjoyable to scroll down past the T-shirt picture. Love that T-shirt. (I've forgotten what it says, I'll have to look again).
Any way, if the assertions in this video are correct, the suet-as-surrogate-grub-guts is probably better for the birds that eat it than other things would be.
It does make me wonder why the RedBelly spends so much time on the platform.
http://www.neatorama.com/2009/02/06/acorns-overwhelm-microwave-radio-transmitter/
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