Downside to backyard chickens: Salmonella

Headline:  The Conversation, 4/3/2018

Catherine Brinkley and Jacqueline Kingsley report:

However, raising backyard chickens is not risk-free. As one example, an outbreak of highly infectious H5N1 avian influenza in Egypt resulted in 183 confirmed cases and 56 deaths between 2014 and 2016. The majority of clinically confirmed cases were linked to close contact with diseased backyard birds. 

In the United States, contact with backyard poultry is associated with hundreds of multistate salmonella outbreaks every year. A 2016 USDA survey of backyard poultry owners found that 25 percent of respondents did not wash their hands after handling birds or eggs. In another study, the majority of backyard owners knew little about identifying or preventing poultry diseases.  [emphasis added]

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Backyard poultry doesn't mean your chickens are immune from bird flu.  (2/25/2025)

Backyard poultry owners need to learn more than the basics in the age of bird flu.  (2/9/2025)