Handling chicken.

How come the rules for handling raw chicken meat are so much more stringent than handling all other types of meat?

You can eat rare steak, rare lamb, and others but absolutely under no circumstances can you eat "rare" chicken (not that one would -- yuck.)  I know this is due to salmonella concerns and I was wondering why chicken seems to be more of a danger when it comes to that than other meats seem to be.

Anyone know?

Not sure why chicken is more susceptible to salmonella than other meats, just wanted to mention that I've seen raw chicken served in Japan, so it's not wholly unheard of.  Definitely disgusting, though.  But then, I feel similarly about steak tartare. 

Maybe it has to do with the durability of the pathogen?  I could ask Mr. A. tonight if he knows.  I know that you can eat pork rarer than most people tend to because trichinosis dies medium or medium well (I don't know because it sort of grosses me out to think of eating pork that's not well done).

Mince you need to cook more than steak or roast because the surface area of mince is greater so it can pick up more contaminants.  It's also handled more, so there's more chance of contamination.

I almost called "mince" "hamburger" in that paragraph.  No secret about where I am from, but old habits are hard to break.

I thought you can't eat mince rare because whilst all meat contains bacteria on the surface of the meat, it contains only very few inside but minced beef is mixed about and processed, so the bacteria on the outside makes contact with every part of the meats surface. This means that when you come to make a burger, bacteria is on the outside, on the inside and everywhere on that particular part of meat - I may be wrong, they were talking about it on some cooking show I was watching

I always eat pork medium to medium rare, I hate it when it's all overcooked and white, it needs a little pinkness to keep it's succulence

Yes, I saw a lot of rare chicken in Japan, I didn't really mind if it was a little rare, but proper rare really scared me, it just has a "wrong" texture and sliminess

I always though that the raw chicken was on a similar vein to the inside/outside, there's ecoli etc in the intestines of cows and chickens, and when butchering it's easier to avoid those areas and keep beef from cross contaminating with bacteria laden areas, but that's more difficult in a chicken, especially as chickens are mostly mass butchered and processed with the intention of them eventually being cooked, so they're not as careful about keeping the meat from being cross contaminated.

I may be totally wrong!

I thought you can't eat mince rare because whilst all meat contains bacteria on the surface of the meat, it contains only very few inside but minced beef is mixed about and processed, so the bacteria on the outside makes contact with every part of the meats surface. This means that when you come to make a burger, bacteria is on the outside, on the inside and everywhere on that particular part of meat - I may be wrong, they were talking about it on some cooking show I was watching

That's what I meant. I guess I didn't say it very clearly.

I am not an expert in the subject, but having slaughtered and prepared chickens before, I would guess that it has to do with the nature of cleaning the meat.

Chickens have to be plucked after they are killed, and their many many feathers collect some nasty things.

Dangerous bacterias and salmonella usually come from the intestine or from the outside of the animal. Pork, beef and lamb all come from larger animals, and generally the skin is removed from these animals before any carving is done. While chickens can be bought with their skins still on, which is where the bulk of bacteria reign. This means that the meat can still come in contact with things you don't want to consume, much easier than with other meats.

Just my thoughts... I could be totally off.