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How to avoid contracting salmonella from backyard chicken coops
- Always wash your hands with soap and water right after touching live poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam. Adults should supervise hand washing for young children. Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available.
- Do not let live poultry inside the house, in bathrooms, or especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored.
- Don't let children younger than 5 years, adults older than 65, and people with weakened immune systems handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other live poultry.
- If you collect eggs from the hens, thoroughly cook them.
- Don't eat or drink in the area where the birds live or roam.
- Avoid kissing your birds or snuggling them, then touching your mouth.
- Stay outdoors when cleaning any equipment or materials used to raise or care for live poultry, such as cages or feed or water containers.
- Buy birds from hatcheries that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Poultry Improvement Plan (USDA-NPIP) U.S. voluntary Salmonella Monitoring Program. This program is intended to reduce the incidence of Salmonella in baby poultry in the hatchery.
How to avoid contracting salmonella from backyard chicken coops
- Always wash your hands with soap and water right after touching live poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam. Adults should supervise hand washing for young children. Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available.
- Do not let live poultry inside the house, in bathrooms, or especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored.
- Don't let children younger than 5 years, adults older than 65, and people with weakened immune systems handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other live poultry.
- If you collect eggs from the hens, thoroughly cook them.
- Don't eat or drink in the area where the birds live or roam.
- Avoid kissing your birds or snuggling them, then touching your mouth.
- Stay outdoors when cleaning any equipment or materials used to raise or care for live poultry, such as cages or feed or water containers.
- Buy birds from hatcheries that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Poultry Improvement Plan (USDA-NPIP) U.S. voluntary Salmonella Monitoring Program. This program is intended to reduce the incidence of Salmonella in baby poultry in the hatchery.
Salmonella cases linked to chickens raised in backyards have more than doubled in the U.S. this year and are expected to continue to increase as more people turn to raising their own poultry, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The trend that has led to the increase - people raising chicken in backyard coops - is happening locally. Several Dayton area communities are considering allowing their residents to keep chickens in their yards.
Dayton used a online survey to poll residents on the issue. Earlier this month, the city shared the results online which showed 79 percent, out of 1,799 respondents, said they were in favor of changing Dayton's zoning code to allow chickens to be raised in the city.
“We are a community that has limited resources and we have one code enforcement officer,” said Beavercreek City Councilwoman Melissa Litteral. “There are chickens in Beavercreek that people have now, and they are more than the recommended amount.”
Huber Heights is planning to let their residents weig-in on backyard chickens by putting the issue on the November ballot.
The city is still analyzing the results before making any decisions on the issue, according to the city’s public affairs office.
Last year, 252 cases salmonella infections linked to live poultry in backyard flocks were reported compared to 611 so far in 2016. The CDC reports 56 cases were reported in Ohio.
Locations of the salmonella cases in Ohio was not available from the state health department at this time.
“There’s a lot people really interested in knowing where their food comes from,” said Dr. Megin Nichols, a CDC epidemiologist. “As part of that, they’re participating in raising backyard poultry. And when we have more people who are exposed to backyard poultry, there’s more of an opportunity for people to be exposed to some of the germs they carry like salmonella.”
About 138 hospitalizations were reported this year for salmonella cases associated with live poultry in backyard flocks this year. That number is more than double the 63 hospitalizations that were recorded last year, according to CDC data.
One death was reported this year, however salmonella-related deaths are uncommon, Nichols said.
“For every one person who is represented in this outbreak, we believe there are probably 30 others that we don’t know about,” Nichols said.
Young children who live in homes with live poultry have the greatest risk for developing salmonella, Nichols said.
“We start to see these cases pop up in late spring and early summer every year,” said Erica Hawkins, a Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. “Usually they start to occur after the Easter season when a lot of interaction with young baby chicks happens. Folks like to play with the baby chicks and have their kids play with them.”
Baby chicks are cute and adorable, so most people don’t think about them being a health threat.
“They are still livestock so you still need interact with them the way you would with any other farm animal,” she said.
Households with children under age 5 should not own live poultry, according to CDC recommendations.
“We know that these are kids whose immune systems are still developing and therefore they are at greater risk for severe illness which can lead to hospitalization,” Nichols said.
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