November 25, 2008

ATLANTA (AP) -- Researchers say that chicken crates being driven
down the highway in an open truck aren't just nasty, they're also
spewing bacteria.

A researcher at Johns Hopkins University suggests that drivers
stuck behind such trucks should "pass them quickly."

The researchers chose a 17-mile stretch of highway connecting
chicken farms in Maryland to a processing plant in Virginia. They
rode in four-door cars with all the windows down.

They checked the cars for bacteria after driving when there were
no chicken trucks around. And they checked for bacteria after 10
trips behind flatbed trucks carrying crates of broiler chickens. In
all the truck chases, they found high levels of certain bacteria,
including some that are resistant to antibiotics.

Studies to determine if chicken trucks can make you sick are
somewhere down the road.

The study is being published in the first issue of the Journal
of Infection and Public Health.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)