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 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
Outbreak Report #1: Campylobacter from puppies
A couple of recent outbreak reports are interesting, though unsurprising, and they help raise awareness about some important issues. Here’s the first one.
The CDC recently released an update on the ongoing investigation into antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter infections from puppies. Contact with puppies (and kittens) has been shown to be a risk factor for people
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
Campylobacter outbreak from pet store puppies (and an antibiotic rant)
This week’s edition of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report has a summary of the 2016-2018 campylobacterosis outbreak linked to pet store puppies. Nothing is particularly surprising, but that doesn’t mean it’s not disappointing (or depressing).
Click here for the complete article. Here’s a (relatively) brief summary:
- It all started when sequencing
Yet another reason not to feed raw chicken
As if another reason was needed, a recent study from Australia (Martinez-Anton et al. 2018 J Vet Internal Med) found a strong association between dogs that consume raw chicken meat and a serious neurological condition known as acute polyradiculoneuritis (APN). APN is comparable to Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in humans. The main objective of
Update: Petland puppy Campylobacter outbreak (Jan 29)
I was talking to someone today about their new puppy, their puppy’s diarrhea and (take a guess) the fact that they developed diarrhea shortly thereafter. Odds are pretty good that puppy and owner both have campylobacteriosis. While this infection isn’t related to the ongoing US multistate Campylobacter outbreak linked to puppies from Petland stores,
Update: Petland puppy Campylobacter outbreak (Oct 31)
The CDC has posted an update on the outbreak of Campylobacter infections in the US linked to puppies from Petland, a pet store chain.
Here are the highlights:
- The case count is now up to 67, in 15 states (see map and graph of case occurrence below). The true number of infected people is
Update: Petland puppy Campylobacter outbreak (Oct 5)
Here’s some follow up information from the recent (and probably ongoing) outbreak of Campylobacter infections linked to puppies purchased at Petland stores in the US:
- 55 infected people have been identified now. That’s probably just a fraction of the people who were truly infected, because of the number of steps that need to happen