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U.S. NEWS Friday 20 OctOber 2017

Backyard chicken trend leads to more disease infections

By DAVID PITT ting them walk around the ment of Agriculture report A large share of baby Maroushek said. “There
Associated Press house. in 2013 found a grow- chicks and ducks sold to are things growing up as a
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Poultry can carry salmo- ing number of residents in consumers come from farm kid you know instinc-
— Luke Gabriele was a nella bacteria in their in- Denver, Los Angeles, Mi- about 20 feed and farm tively but city people don’t
healthy 14-year-old foot- know.”
ball player in Pennsylvania In her clinic, she’s seen
when he began to feel young children suffering
soreness in his chest that from salmonella poisoning.
grew increasingly painful. The bacteria often cause
After his breathing became flu-like symptoms, including
difficult, doctors detected diarrhea, and can produce
a mass that appeared to more serious infections in
be a tumor. children, the elderly and
For a week, Dan and people with weak immune
DeAnna Gabriele thought systems.
their son was dying until “It gets into their blood and
tests identified the cause: it can get into organs,” she
not cancer, but chickens said. “It can be much more
— the ones he cared for significant in people with
at home. They had appar- underlying health prob-
ently infected him with sal- lems.”
monella that produced a Even those who have had
severe abscess. chickens for years can fall
The popular trend of raising victim, as Luke Gabriele did
backyard chickens in U.S. in 2013 in his hometown of
cities and suburbs is bring- Felton in southeast Pennsyl-
ing with it a soaring number vania.
of illnesses from poultry-re- In this Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, photo, Tanya Keith, of Des Moines, Iowa, and her daughter Iolana DeAnna Gabriele said her
lated diseases, at least one feed their chickens in the backyard of their home, in Des Moines. The trend of raising backyard son was responsible for
of them fatal. chickens is causing a soaring number of illnesses from poultry-related diseases. For Keith, the nine feeding and watering the
Since January, more than hens and a rooster that she keeps behind her home provide fresh eggs and lessons for her three chickens, but he didn’t re-
children about where food comes from. But even as her kids collect eggs and help keep the six
1,100 people have con- nesting boxes tidy, she warns them not get too affectionate. ally like the birds and cer-
tracted salmonella poi- (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) tainly didn’t treat them as
soning from chickens and pets. “They really never fig-
ducks in 48 states, accord- testines that can be shed ami and New York City ex- supply retailers across the ured out specifically how
ing to the Centers for Dis- in their feces. The bacteria pressed interest in getting U.S. They get their chicks Luke got the salmonella,”
ease Control. Almost 250 can attach to feathers and them. Coops are now seen from a half dozen large she said. “They theorized
were hospitalized and one dust and brush off on shoes in even the smallest yards hatcheries that supply tens that maybe he inhaled
person died. The toll was or clothing. and densest urban neigh- of millions of baby chicks something because it can
four times higher than in But illnesses can be pre- borhoods. and ducklings each year. live in the environment and
2015. The CDC estimates vented with proper han- For Tanya Keith, the nine While the Agriculture De- you can breathe it in in the
that the actual number of dling. The CDC recom- hens and a rooster that she partment encourages dust.”
cases from contact with mends that people raising keeps behind her home in hatcheries to be tested He recovered after nine
chickens and ducks is likely chickens wash their hands Des Moines provide fresh regularly for salmonella days in the hospital with the
much higher. thoroughly after handling eggs and lessons for her contamination, the pro- help of antibiotics.
“For one salmonella case the birds, eggs or nesting three children about where gram is voluntary. Unsani- She and her husband said
we know of in an out- materials, and leave any food comes from. tary conditions or rodent in- that anyone buying chick-
break, there are up to 30 shoes worn in a chicken But even as her kids collect festations can help salmo- ens for the first time should
others that we don’t know coop outside. eggs and help keep the nella spread in hatcheries. try to find out whether the
about,” CDC veterinarian Salmonella is much more six nesting boxes tidy, she Dr. Stacene Maroushek, a hatchery they came from
Megin Nichols said. common as a food-borne warns them not get too af- pediatric infectious disease tests for salmonella.
A “large contributing fac- illness. More than 1 million fectionate. physician in Minneapolis, Nichols said the best way
tor” to the surge, Nichols people fall ill each year “We don’t transfer chicken sees both sides of the pop- chicken raisers can protect
said, comes from natural from salmonella contami- germs to our face,” Keith ular trend. She manages themselves is to assume all
food fanciers who have nation in food, resulting in tells them. her own flock of about 50 birds carry salmonella and
taken up the backyard more than 300 deaths, ac- Stopping the germs at birds. treat them carefully.
chicken hobby but don’t cording to the CDC. home is important because “I think it’s really important “We view this as a prevent-
understand the potential There are no firm figures safeguards against sal- to know where your food able public health problem
dangers. Some treat their on how many households monella are limited at the comes from, but I do think and are really hoping we
birds like pets, kissing or in the U.S. have backyard commercial sources that they need to be educat- start to see some change,”
snuggling them and let- chickens, but a Depart- sell most of the birds. ed on how to do it safely,” she said.q