Doesn't surprise me one bit. The government is very good at tossing science out the window if it can be done to help special interests, or to just mash producers under the thumb.

Which serovar of Salmonella are you implicating in your discussion? It makes a difference. Salmonella enteriditis is a major cause of human gastroenteritis, and shows little clinical signs in chickens (which necessitates the need for screening the environment and pooled chicken fecal samples for the pathogen). I'm fairly certain that the FDA is attempting to provide quality control for infectious diseases as animal products are sent to market. Other serovars of Salmonella are transmitted by different animals. For example: There is a reason why you can't legally purchase turtles with a shell diameter of less than 4" - turtles carry a serovar of Salmonella that children were infected with when they would put those small turtles in their mouth.

Sad, but not surprising. One wonders how much influence was wielded here by the "D" part the FDA.