Unfortunately, they also pound dirt and manure into the skin pores. USDA eventually stopped reporting the levels. Some surveys revealed contamination levels at some plants of 60 percent. Thousands of dirty chickens are bathed together in a chill tank, creating a mixture known as fecal soup that spreads contamination from bird to bird. USDA released a study in 1988 that conceded that washing does not adequately remove salmonella germs left behind by fecal contamination, even after 40 consecutive rinses.
Whistleblowers describe the work as modern slavery.
Since employees are not always allowed to leave the line to go to the bathroom, they sometimes go on the floor. Chickens that fall in the urine and excrement are routinely picked up and returned to the line. According to inspectors, at one Southern poultry plant the management would not stop the line after a pregnant woman vomited on it. Poultry plants also use chlorine to wash chickens. The heavy fumes from the solutions caused workers' eyes to water, skin to peel from their hands, and the development of lung problems, chronic headaches and sore throats.