Backyard chickens aren’t inherently bad. There’s risk and there’s reward says Scott Weese, DVM. He says disease risk is also an important consideration, so we need to figure out how to reduce risks while maximizing the benefits of pet contact. For chickens, the big risk is Salmonella.
The risk of chicken-to-human transmission is very well established, and there are outbreaks every year from activities that bring people and chickens together.
Source: WormsandGerms Blog, October 21, 2020. Link. As of September 22, a total of 1346 infections have been identified by the U.S. CDC.
- Cases have been identified in 49 states, and there are 16 separate multi-state outbreaks
- A third of patients for whom details were available ended up hospitalized (that’s quite high)
- 23% of affected people were children less than 5 years of age.