Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just read about Mice Direct's rodent problem with salmonella and their solution to "irradiate" the rodents. As a long time vegan and organic food advocate (I prefer to limit my pesticide consumption), this is not good news if other producers follow in their footsteps. I would sell off my entire collection before any irradiated product is used. This is just another way for the nuclear industry to get rid of it's nuclear waste. I won't even feed my cats the crap they sell in supermarkets.

Here's hoping rodent pro and big cheese don't follow suit; it's been fun so far, but ???

Mike

Mike,
Just curious what your concerns are about the use of ionizing radiation on feeder mice? Thanks,

Kelly

I won't buy any foods that have been irradiated; ditto for my pets. It's a pathetic way for the energy commission to unload all the excesses from nuclear plants. It basically gives foods a longer shelf life but doubtful it does the same for people. I don't care how safe the regulatory agencies or the FDA say it is; they don't have peoples safety in mind, just the big corporations. If radiation is limited to frozen rodents then I'll be breeding my own.

Mike

I don't know anything about the irradiation process. Your description kind of implies that the mice will be dipped into nuclear waste or something; I can't really see that happening. I'm under the impression that once any radioactive material has decayed, it is an inert product - safe depending on the element's other properties.

While at first I dismissed your post as a kneejerk fear response, it has made me curious as to the process. Thanks for that
Anyone know more?

Ian

Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation[1] to destroy microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, or insects that might be present in the food. Further applications include sprout inhibition, delay of ripening, increase of juice yield, and improvement of re-hydration. Irradiated food does not become radioactive, but in some cases there may be subtle chemical changes.

All it took was one google click !

I tend not to use google as much as the next person. A lot of crap on the internet... So your definition combined with what little I know about such things, I personally don't think there'd be much to worry about. Nevertheless, different things peak different people's nerves. For myself, I'm paranoid about all them cameras popping up at intersections, and those little monitoring devices nailed to the road. I refuse to drive over them ~

Ian

The ionizing radiation leaves no trace of radioactivity and the food itself is probably completely safe. My issue is that with the sterilization by the ionizing radiation, you are going to lose the benefit of the bacterial population inherent within any food item. I believe all animals rely on food material to assist in the maintenance of the population and species composition of their intestinal bacteria fauna.

Kelly

lol, you could always roll them around the enclosure prior to feeding