Salmonella Infections Traced to Backyard Chickens

Photo: CDC

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Nearly 100 people have been reported ill, and likely many more, by two related outbreaks of salmonella that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigation has traced back to a mail-order poultry company that USA Today identified as Mount Healthy Hatcheries of Mount Healthy. Illnesses have been reported in most states east of the Rockies.

Raising backyard chickens has become increasingly popular. Whether it's a desire for locally raised, ethically treated meat or eggs, or fear over national outbreaks of foodborne illness, like the massive 2010 egg recall, the trend in backyard gardening and homesteading, in both the country and the city, has been on the rise.

Unfortunately, raising chickens yourself doesn't eliminate your risk of foodborne illness. The CDC has identified several outbreaks of salmonella tied to backyard chickens over the last several years.

People adopting egg-laying or meat-producing chickens, or other poultry, might be surprised by this. The Daily Green opened up seven recently-published books on gardening, homesteading and other related topics. Each had information about raising chickens, but none mentioned the risk of salmonella or other foodborne illnesses.*

Here's what the CDC recommends for owners of backyard flocks:

• Keep baby chicks and adult chickens away from people with weaker immune systems, including the elderly, pregnant women, diabetics, patients receiving chemotherapy, and people who are infected with HIV.
• Do not keep chickens if a household has children less than five years of age. Don't let children under five handle or touch chicks, ducklings or other live poultry.
• Make sure that any interaction between chicks or chickens and small children is supervised, that children wash their hands afterwards, and that hand-washing is supervised to ensure that it is adequate. Children less than five years of age tend to put their hands and other potentially contaminated objects into their mouths.
• Do not snuggle or kiss the birds, touch your mouth, or eat or drink around live poultry.
• Always wash your hands with soap and water after touching chickens or anything in their environment. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Bacteria on your hands can be easily transferred to objects and other people in your home.
• Frequently clean the area where chickens are kept. Wash contaminated items with hot soapy water or with a mild bleach solution, and do the washing outside the house. Do not wash items from chicken coops like water and food dishes in the kitchen sink.
• Do not eat or drink around your chickens, and don't let chickens roam freely around the house. Particularly, keep chickens away from areas where food is stored, prepared or consumed.
• Visit your physician if you experience abdominal pain, fever, and/or diarrhea.

* We checked out The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading, Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution, Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World, The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid: A back-to-basics manual for independent living, Minnie Rose Lovgreen's Recipe for Raising Chickens: 86-yr-old farmwoman's lively advice, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living and Backyard Poultry Naturally. Several of these titles are charming, useful and full of good information. But none seemed to touch on the topic of salmonella, or other risks, from raising backyard chickens.

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