Salmonella bird seed recall hits Wild Birds Unlimited
Wild Birds Unlimited has just pulled its Wildlife Blend bird food from shelves due to fears of salmonella poisoning. It’s the 20 pound bag with the specific code of 81132200 2916 08124. WBU’s supplier, Burkmann Feeds, issued the voluntary recall after some tests by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture showed salmonella bacteria was present in the bird food. Increasing reports of dead birds around the state prompted the investigation. You can read the actual press release from the NCDA and a response from WBU by clicking on these links below. I also put a link to WBU’s home page, but I couldn’t find anything about the recall there for some reason.
NC Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services press release
Statement from Wild Birds Unlimited
Wild Birds Unlimited home page
So, what do you do if you’ve already got some of this stuff? Wash your hands and be careful! Take it back to WBU and they’ll probably give you a new bag of something different in return. Since the stores are locally owned and operated, I’d call first. Alternatively, you could just put on some gloves and think of it as squirrel food. Put it in a squirrel feeder of some sort that your birds can’t get into, and there you go! Well, maybe not, but it was fun to think about for a second! Dave
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Comments
Dave,
I hate to see or hear about these situations…other animals eat dead animals that are sick and the vicious cycle begins..
We had a farmer in a near by county decide to spray to kill the invading starlings who were eating all his farm-type seed he was putting out…people had dead birds falling from the sky onto their yards, roof tops etc.. the local news covered stories of people actually picking up these dead creatures and filling trash bags…or filming their yards showing all the dead birds..so sad. esp for other animals who might have dined on these poisoned birds…even tho the news stories kept saying the poison became inert once ingested by the bird…tsk tsk..not true as some of these neighbors lost their cats to poisoning..wonder how they became so sick??
poison or salmonella..so sad to witness!!
return that seed!!
We had some of the potentially infected seed and threw it out. We’re too far away from WBU to make a drive reasonable.
Hope you are enjoying the tournament. The UNC game today was frightening! Now, if BC can pull out a miracle over Dook again…
I didn’t know about the birdseed recall. I get my seed from a local farmer’s grain elevator. And I usually always get shelled, raw peanuts and shelled sunflowers or sunflower chips and pieces. I like your blog. I don’t remember how I got here but I shall be back.
I just brought my Coopers Hawk blog back. Blogger had saved the name for me. I have hundreds of photos yet to publish. If you are interested in hawks you are welcome to have a look.
We’ve got the Salmonella problem here also–in the Pine Siskins… I put up my bird feed for a week (while we were in Arkansas) and cleaned everything really good. (I have none of that feed from WBU, thank goodness.)
When we got home on Sat., I put the feeders out (only with sunflower seeds) —and guess what??? The Siskins were still here and waiting on me!!!! DARN!!!! BUT–I haven’t seen any sick ones. I’m looking carefully constantly.
AND–I saw a couple of bluebirds yesterday —looking over the nestbox. Hope they nest here again…. HOPE HOPE HOPE!!!
How’s the family? We had a big Ice Storm while in Arkansas this time… Interesting trip!!!! ha
Have a great day.
Hugs,
Betsy
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Ha, your squirrel, or tree rats as I call them, comment is ironic (and funny). Wildlife blend (as the name sort of implies) is not really geared towards birds. It is intended to be more of a squirrel/critter mix anyway!
It looks like there is a press release on wbu.com now.