Avian leukosis/sarcoma virus has been found in 14% of retail egg samples.
Carcinogenic Retrovirus Found in Eggs
5/5 - (22 votes)
To recap: “Certain viruses commonly infect and cause a wide variety of cancers in chickens and turkeys destined for human consumption. They include the avian leukosis/sarcoma viruses, reticuloendotheliosis viruses, and Marek’s disease virus. The avian leukosis/sarcoma viruses and reticuloendotheliosis viruses are among the most potent cancer-causing agents known, and can induce cancer in poultry in a matter of…days.” This is what Marek’s disease looks like; you can see all the little tumors in the skin. It also can affect the chickens’ eyes.
What about people, though? Well, these viruses “are found present in raw poultry products, including raw or inadequately cooked poultry meat and eggs meant for human consumption, [as well as]…vaccines grown in eggs.”
They cite a study in which researchers went looking for avian leukosis/sarcoma virus, a carcinogenic retrovirus, in commercial eggs right off supermarket shelves, and found 14%; 14% of egg samples from 20 randomly chosen New Orleans retail stores tested positive for the virus.
“Thus the general population is commonly exposed…It is therefore of great interest whether these agents also cause cancer in humans.”
We don’t know for sure, but: “This large study provides evidence that a human group with high exposure to poultry oncogenic cancer-causing viruses has increased risk of dying from several cancers.”
Beyond just poultry workers, with regards to the general population: “The public health implication that the excess occurrence of some of these cancers in these workers may be associated with exposure to oncogenic viruses is not trivial.”
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Johnson ES, Ndetan H, Lo KM. Cancer mortality in poultry slaughtering/processing plant workers belonging to a union pension fund. Environ Res. 2010 Aug;110(6):588-94.
- Thuy D. Pham1, J. L. Spencer, Vicki L. Traina-Dorge, David A. Mullin, Robert F. Garry & Eric S. Johnson. Detection of exogenous and endogenous avian leukosis virus in commercial chicken eggs using reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction assay. Avian Pathology (1999) 28, 385±392
Image thanks to Waleed Alzuhair / Flickr
To recap: “Certain viruses commonly infect and cause a wide variety of cancers in chickens and turkeys destined for human consumption. They include the avian leukosis/sarcoma viruses, reticuloendotheliosis viruses, and Marek’s disease virus. The avian leukosis/sarcoma viruses and reticuloendotheliosis viruses are among the most potent cancer-causing agents known, and can induce cancer in poultry in a matter of…days.” This is what Marek’s disease looks like; you can see all the little tumors in the skin. It also can affect the chickens’ eyes.
What about people, though? Well, these viruses “are found present in raw poultry products, including raw or inadequately cooked poultry meat and eggs meant for human consumption, [as well as]…vaccines grown in eggs.”
They cite a study in which researchers went looking for avian leukosis/sarcoma virus, a carcinogenic retrovirus, in commercial eggs right off supermarket shelves, and found 14%; 14% of egg samples from 20 randomly chosen New Orleans retail stores tested positive for the virus.
“Thus the general population is commonly exposed…It is therefore of great interest whether these agents also cause cancer in humans.”
We don’t know for sure, but: “This large study provides evidence that a human group with high exposure to poultry oncogenic cancer-causing viruses has increased risk of dying from several cancers.”
Beyond just poultry workers, with regards to the general population: “The public health implication that the excess occurrence of some of these cancers in these workers may be associated with exposure to oncogenic viruses is not trivial.”
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Johnson ES, Ndetan H, Lo KM. Cancer mortality in poultry slaughtering/processing plant workers belonging to a union pension fund. Environ Res. 2010 Aug;110(6):588-94.
- Thuy D. Pham1, J. L. Spencer, Vicki L. Traina-Dorge, David A. Mullin, Robert F. Garry & Eric S. Johnson. Detection of exogenous and endogenous avian leukosis virus in commercial chicken eggs using reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction assay. Avian Pathology (1999) 28, 385±392
Image thanks to Waleed Alzuhair / Flickr
Republishing "Carcinogenic Retrovirus Found in Eggs"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Carcinogenic Retrovirus Found in Eggs
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
But who eats raw eggs? It’s probably more a problem of cross-contamination before they’re cooked. See Total Recall. For info on viruses in poultry, see the last three videos: EPIC Findings on Lymphoma; Chicken Dioxins, Viruses, or Antibiotics?; and Poultry and Penis Cancer.
The retail egg survey is open access, so feel free to download it by clicking on the link in the Sources Cited section above.
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Eating Green to Prevent Cancer; How Tumors Use Meat to Grow; and Eggs, Cigarettes, and Atherosclerosis.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
