Gnawed Potatoes Safe to Eat?

[mikedigitales]

Might be worth getting a min-max thermometer at popping it in all those potential storage areas you mentioned to check their suitability?

[Kaiya]

Erm... were you planning on eating the potatoes raw? Cooking kills leptospira. In order to catch leptospirosis from your potatoes you would have had to keep them damp from the point that the urine contacted them, and then eaten them without washing or cooking them. Which I assume you weren't going to do.

Risks from contaminated food and drink

Even "Meat from infected animals is also relatively safe to eat once cooked thoroughly, even the organs with high concentrations of bacteria such as the kidneys." - if you can eat an infected bacteria-filled kidney you sure as anything can eat a cooked potato that might have been peed on by a rat that might have had leptospirosis.

I will never understand this irrational fear of leptospira. It's a rare, low risk bacteria that is removed by washing and drying and killed by cooking. If you dropped a potato on the kitchen floor that your cat walked over just after it exited the litter tray, you wash the potato and cook it. You wouldn't fret about the E.coli that might be there from cat faeces, yet E.coli kills more people per year than leptospira does.

[BUFFS]

I put mine in old paper chook feed sacks,half full,then fold over top bit and tie a cord around that,i then tie a loop in other end and suspend them from shed rafters,about 5/6ft up,so until we get vermin airlines they will be safe....

[Snadger]

I put mine in old paper chook feed sacks,half full,then fold over top bit and tie a cord around that,i then tie a loop in other end and suspend them from shed rafters,about 5/6ft up,so until we get vermin airlines they will be safe....

Rats are very ingenious and intelligent creatures. I dare bet they would find a way if they were hungry enough. Flying rats
Sounds like a good idea though, as air will circulate around the spuds keeping them dry (unless the shed roof leaks!):rolleyes

[snohare]

I'd have eaten them, and I know a fair bit about pathogens, in particular leptospirosis. If eating food that had been peed on by Rattus rattus was seriously bad for the health, then the human race would be extinct by now. As it is, going by the record in virology, it seems mice are more lethal.
But then again, I've been on benefits for almost fifteen years, and I'm used to scraping mould off bread and cheese, etc !

[Bramleyapple]

Here are the lovely spuds I had to throw away.... Desiree, Harmony, Maxine and Valor.
Bought a bag of Cara today and I'm keeping them in the front porch (unheated). It may well be my potato store from now on!

As for Rattie.....

Many thanks for all your help, everyone.

Hmmm - just read snohare and Kaiya......

[veggiechicken]

I may be too late to suggest this but - could you have used then as seed potatoes and grown them on next year?

[Kaiya]

I'd have eaten them, and I know a fair bit about pathogens, in particular leptospirosis. If eating food that had been peed on by Rattus rattus was seriously bad for the health, then the human race would be extinct by now.

Not only that, but whereas there were only 33 cases of leptospirosis in 2009, there were 57,772 cases of campylobacteriosis, which also can be serious in the very young, old and unwell. Depending on origin of the meat (all UK origin) 40-80% of raw chicken (fresh or frozen) is contaminated with campylobacter, so if you eat chicken, you are eating food contaminated with campylobacter. That's why chicken must be cooked.

Shame about your tats!