People getting sick from handling backyard chickens, report warns
Birds harbour bacteria that caused outbreaks of salmonella
Local food safety experts are warning people who keep backyard chickens to exercise caution after a U.S. report found nearly 1,000 people were sickened by salmonella this year.
“(People) need to be careful with birds in domestic situations,” said UBC food microbiologist Kevin Allen. “Birds harbour salmonella and campylobacter (bacteria that cause food poisoning) — that’s not disputable. People get sick from them all the time, whether it’s via food-borne transmission or ... direct contact.”
In an advisory issued earlier this week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that 961 cases of salmonella have been confirmed in 10 outbreaks so far this year. The DNA fingerprints of the bacteria link the outbreaks to contact with live poultry.
More than 215 people in 48 states and one district were hospitalized and one person has died. About 30 per cent of the confirmed illnesses were children under five.
Backyard flocks have become increasingly popular in Metro Vancouver as more municipalities followed Vancouver’s lead in legalizing the practice. There are 217 flocks registered in the City of Vancouver and more than 20 new registrations come in each year.
Surrey, North Vancouver, New Westminster and Richmond are among the municipalities that allow urban flocks.
“If you handle birds, you’re at risk of contracting these organisms. That’s why salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis is common in new employees at abattoirs and kids at petting zoos,” said Allen.
However, a veteran backyard chicken keeper — and mother of three young 4-H poultry competitors — called the warnings “alarmist.”
“I’ve kept chickens in Richmond, Ladner and now Parksville, since the kids were just babies,” said Jennifer Grenz. “This is just completely overblown when you consider the number of people keeping chickens versus people actually getting sick.”
Grenz has 21 birds in her flock, which her children clean, care for and occasionally hug, “but they wash their hands before they eat and they have chicken shoes for when they are in the pens as biosecurity. It’s common sense.”
All three kids recently won awards for their birds at the Coombs Fair on Vancouver Island.
The value of her kids understanding where food comes from far outweighs the risk of illness for Grenz, who is an agrologist. “You can find risk in anything, from crossing the street to keeping cats and dogs,” she said. “There are risks from handling compost — should we stop our children from gardening, too?”
Nonetheless, UBC food safety expert Xiaonan Lu recommends people avoid contact with live chickens, noting that salmonella and campylobacteriosis are responsible for more than one million illnesses each year in Canada, with some strains leading to hospitalization and death.