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A trend in raising chickens in urban/suburban areas has led to a spike in salmonella infections:
The popular trend of raising backyard chickens in U.S. cities and suburbs is bringing with it a soaring number of illnesses from poultry-related diseases, at least one of them fatal. Since January, more than 1,100 people have contracted salmonella poisoning from chickens and ducks in 48 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Almost 250 were hospitalized and one person died. The toll was four times higher than in 2015.
The CDC estimates that the actual number of cases from contact with chickens and ducks is likely much higher. "For one salmonella case we know of in an outbreak, there are up to 30 others that we don't know about," CDC veterinarian Megin Nichols said.
A "large contributing factor" to the surge, Nichols said, comes from natural food fanciers who have taken up the backyard chicken hobby but don't understand the potential dangers. Some treat their birds like pets, kissing or snuggling them and letting them walk around the house. Poultry can carry salmonella bacteria in their intestines that can be shed in their feces. The bacteria can attach to feathers and dust and brush off on shoes or clothing.
But illnesses can be prevented with proper handling. The CDC recommends that people raising chickens wash their hands thoroughly after handling the birds, eggs or nesting materials, and leave any shoes worn in a chicken coop outside.
Salmonella is much more common as a food-borne illness. More than 1 million people fall ill each year from salmonella contamination in food, resulting in more than 300 deaths, according to the CDC. There are no firm figures on how many households in the U.S. have backyard chickens, but a Department of Agriculture report in 2013 found a growing number of residents in Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City expressed interest in getting them. Coops are now seen in even the smallest yards and densest urban neighborhoods.
Earlier article from when only 900 people had been infected this year.
Related: Backyard Beekeeping Now Legal in Los Angeles
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 20 2017, @04:58PM (2 children)
On a certain level I find stories like this ridiculous. As if store-bought chicken/eggs/what-have-you is safe. There are stories all the time about E. coli and salmonella contaminated groceries. And if it's not garden-variety pathogens like that, it's mystery antibiotics or genetic engineering or other dopants that will wind up dissolving your kidneys or giving your kids three arms. Furthermore, think about how much food in your grocery store comes from places with stellar, just stellar, standards of hygiene like China--China, a country where they have to put signs in restaurants asking customers, "Please don't spit on the floor!"
If you raise your own livestock, you know exactly what you give them or don't. Also, in case you care about such things, the carbon footprint of that protein is zero.
But, no, hey, the big scary government/media/corporate dudes are right, raising your own chickens and other livestock is so difficult and dangerous that all the humans before the modern era who did it totally went extinct and brought all human civilization to an end. Also, the billions upon billions of people on Earth who still do it fall dead every time they touch a farm animal.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 20 2017, @05:38PM
We don't want people using their yards to grow food now do we? Think of the mega corps!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 20 2017, @08:52PM
Unless you're feeding them anything besides leftovers and waste...