Those backyard chickens could give you salmonella, CDC says

Last year saw an unusually high number of salmonella cases – 1,120 of them, across nearly all 50 states, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The cases were set apart by the fact they didn’t come from the traditional sources (contaminated food or water) but from chickens, ducks and other poultry people are keeping in their backyards.

The CDC traced 10 outbreaks back to backyard poultry over the last year, the most ever recorded by the CDC. Seventy percent of those who fell ill reported contact with live poultry in the week before illness, according to the results of its investigation, published on the CDC website on Thursday.

That includes 14-year old Luke Gabriele who was infected with salmonella by chickens he cared for at home, according to the AP. Doctors discovered as mass they thought was a tumor. It was actually a severe abscess, a byproduct of the infection, according to the AP.

Salmonella can cause diarrhea, vomiting, fever and can lead to death. At least one person died from salmonella linked to backyard poultry, according to the CDC findings.

While backyard chicken coops have become popular in recent years, they aren’t always legal and there is an underground “urban chicken” movement in many major cities, according to World Watch Institute. Grassroots efforts in other cities have led to ordinances that allow for limited numbers of hens within city limits, according to the site.

Partly, the trend is an extension of the larger urban farming movement, Carol-Ann Sayle told World Watch Institute. She co-owns a five-acre farm in Austin, Texas that is walking distance from the state capitol, according to the website.

“Fresh is not what you buy at the grocery store. Fresh is when you go into your backyard, put it in your bag, and eat it," Sayle told the institute. “Everyone should have their own henhouse in their own backyard.”

But they have to follow the proper handling and care, which the CDC lays out on its website.

Children younger than five, adults older than 65 and people with weakened immune systems should not handle or touch chicks, ducklings or other live poultry. Also, don’t eat or drink in the area where the birds live and “avoid kissing your birds or snuggling them, then touching your mouth,” the CDC says.

The birds can carry the bacteria but appear healthy, the CDC says.

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Those backyard chickens could give you salmonella, CDC says."