The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced new rules for the poultry industry designed to reduce salmonella and campylobacter in young chickens and turkeys. The revised standards are expected to prevent tens of thousands of human illnesses each year.

This is good news for consumers. Our latest tests found bacterial contamination in 66 percent of chickens from more than 100 stores. After two years under the new standards, the USDA estimates that 39,000 illnesses will be avoided each year under the new campylobacter standards, and 26,000 fewer illnesses each year under the revised salmonella standards.

The new standards are the first-ever for campylobacter—bacteria that sickens an estimated 2 million people a year in the U.S. with diarrhea, nausea and fever—and the first revision to the salmonella standards for chicken since 1996. The President’s Food Safety Working Group wants 90 percent of all poultry processors to meet the revised salmonella standard by the end of this year.