The effect of management practices on eggshell cleanliness, bacteria levels, and cuticle deposition in pastured poultry

Small-scale egg production is a growing industry in New England. However, foodborne ill-ness risk exists from small-scale pastured eggs due to lack of guidelines for safe handling and management practices. A survey was distributed to backyard poultry owners and producers in the Northeast and indicated a variety of management practices were used. Based on these results, we developed a set of experiments to determine if these management practices influ-enced eggshell bacteria levels and cuticle deposition. We hypothesized that the manure level (ML) of the eggs and management practices will affect both the total bacterial levels (mea-sured in relative light units = RLU) and the cuticle deposition (CD) of the eggshell. The man-agement practices tested were nest box type (rollaway and conventional style), nest box location (mounted vs. floor level access), nesting substrate (straw, shavings, and AstroTurf Nest Pads), and time/frequency of egg collection. The CD experiments involved nest box type and nest substrate management practices only. In conclusion, management practices that mini-mize manure levels on eggs, like time of egg collection as found in this study, can help to maintain lower eggshell bacteria levels to reduce food safety risk.