In this episode, you'll hear from Olivia Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University, and Phil Tocco, an MSU Extension Educator. They discuss the factors that influence the relative risk of birds to food safety.

Additional Resources

Articles Published in Scientific Journals:

• Complex landscapes stabilize farm bird communities and their expected ecosystem services
• Are we overestimating risk of enteric pathogen spillover from wild birds to humans?
• Agricultural intensification heightens food safety risks posed by wild birds
• A trait-based framework for predicting foodborne pathogen risk from wild birds
• Feedlot Association Increases Food Safety Risk Associated with Wild Birds - Photo Gallery

Press Releases:

• Bird-Friendly Agriculture: Finding the Right Balance to Benefit Birds and Farmers (and Everyone Else)
• Not-so dirty birds? Not enough evidence to link wild birds to food-borne illness
• New research reconciles wild bird conservation with farm food safety concerns
• Researchers pinpoint which bird species pose food safety risk to crops
• These bird species are most likely to contaminate our fruits and veggies

Related Podcasts:

• MSU Ag & Wildlife Podcast: Wild birds on the farm

Brief description of Kestrel Grant: 

• Two members receive USDA-NIFA postdoctoral fellowships - Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (msu.edu)

Funding for this podcast was made possible in part by the Food and Drug Administration through grant PAR-16-137. The views expressed in the posted materials do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does any mention of trade names, commercial practices or organization imply endorsement by the United States Government.