I got a question about an old post on this topic, so I decided to add a bit of information and re-post it. Not much has changed since it was written in 2018, apart from more reports of people and pets getting sick from raw pet food and raw treats.
Backyard Poultry Salmonella Update
It was surprising to see what things sold out early in the pandemic: toilet paper, yeast, exercise equipment…. and chicken coops.
Yes, there was a run on chicken coops.
It seems like a lot of people decided to get backyard chickens in response to all the COVID-19 restrictions.
Any human-to-animal contact has a mixture of
Fostering Chicks and Ducklings: It’s All Fun and Games Until…
We all know that backyard chickens are becoming increasingly popular – despite some of their associated infectious disease hazards, which we’ve discussed many times before. The latest “pandemic pastime” takes the trend to a whole new level, with scores of people fostering chicks or ducklings as a family activity, aka something
Backyard Chickens + Salmonella… No Surprise There
I was at our local farm supply store the other day and saw a sign indicating they were out of chicken coops and trying to find more from different sources. I wonder if there’s a run on backyard chickens as people spend more time at home. There are some positive aspects to that – and
Backyard Chicken Salmonella Outbreak
COVID-19 derailed our plans for some backyard chicken work (e.g. research and education) this spring, but the emergence of COVID-19 doesn’t mean all other infectious disease issues have disappeared. Some problems will be reduced by the precautions put in place to control COVID-19, but other problems may actually get worse. Backyard chickens continue to be
Snakes, rodents and Salmonella… same story, different country
This is one of these “I’m not sure it’s really news” stories, but I guess is should be because it’s still a problem. We know there is a clear link between reptiles and Salmonella in people. Reptiles are common carriers of this bacterium, and human infections from handling reptiles or having contact with their environment
Raw diet risks…Study results vs headlines
A recent study looked at human illness associated with raw pet food and has led to headlines such as “It is safe to feed raw pet foods.”
Did the study say that? No, it did not.
If you asked 100 people if they had a foodborne disease in the past year, I assume
Biohazardous backyard chickens
A recently published University of Guelph study evaluating pet poultry flocks found (unsurprisingly) high rates of shedding of certain concerning bacteria (Brochu et al, J Vet Diagn Invest 2019).
- Campylobacter, an important cause of gastrointestinal disease in people, was present in 36% of tested chickens. Salmonella was less common but present in
Update: Pig ear treat / Salmonella outbreak
There’s nothing too surprising in the latest CDC update on the US outbreak of salmonellosis linked to pig ear treats. People continue to get sick, which is the frustrating aspect, since this has been a known issue for a while and has been communicated extensively.
At last report (yesterday), the total case number was
Pig ear treat warning
As the US salmonellosis outbreak linked to contaminated pig ear treats continues, the FDA and CDC are now taking the additional step of advising people to avoid all pig ear treats and for retailers to stop selling them. As the investigation continues, links to treats imported from Argentina and Brazil have been made, but