2020 Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Backyard Poultry

Backyard poultry can carry Salmonella bacteria even if they look healthy and clean and show no signs of illness. You can get sick with a Salmonella infection from touching backyard poultry or their environment. Follow these tips to stay healthy with your backyard flock, even if there is not an ongoing outbreak:

Wash your hands.

• Always wash your hands with soap and water right after touching backyard poultry, their eggs, or anything in the area where they live and roam.
• Adults should supervise handwashing by young children.
• Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available. Consider keeping hand sanitizer near your coop.

Be safe around poultry.

• Don’t kiss, snuggle, or touch backyard poultry and then touch your face or mouth.
• Don’t let backyard poultry inside the house, especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored.
• Set aside a pair of shoes to wear while taking care of poultry and keep those shoes outside of the house.
• Don’t eat or drink where poultry live or roam.
• Stay outdoors when cleaning any equipment or materials used to raise or care for poultry, such as cages and containers for feed or water.

Supervise kids around poultry.

• Always supervise children around poultry and while they wash their hands after being around poultry.
• Children younger than 5 years of age shouldn’t handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other poultry. Young children are more likely to get sick from germs like Salmonella.

Handle eggs safely.

• Collect eggs often. Eggs that sit in the nest can become dirty or break.
• Throw away cracked eggs. Germs on the shell can more easily enter the egg though a cracked shell.
• Eggs with dirt and debris can be cleaned carefully with fine sandpaper, a brush, or a cloth.
• Don’t wash warm, fresh eggs because colder water can pull germs into the egg.
• Refrigerate eggs after collection to maintain freshness and slow germ growth.
• Cook eggs until both the yolk and white are firm. Egg dishes should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C) or hotter. Raw and undercooked eggs may contain Salmonella bacteria that can make you sick.

For more recommendations on keeping poultry, visit the Healthy Pets, Healthy People website section on backyard poultry.

• Source poultry from hatcheries that have adopted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) best management practices to mitigate Salmonella contamination [PDF – 25 pages] and those which voluntarily participate in the USDA’s National Poultry Improvement Plan (USDA-NPIP) U.S. Salmonella Monitored Program [PDF – 17 pages].
• Provide health information to owners and potential buyers of poultry before purchase. This should include information about the risk of getting a Salmonella infection from contact with poultry.
  • A sample flyer [PDF – 1 page] describing the risk of Salmonella infections from contact with poultry and prevention recommendations is available online.
• Place health information in clear view where poultry are displayed.
• Provide handwashing stations or hand sanitizer next to poultry display areas and tell customers to wash hands right after leaving these areas.
• Display poultry out of reach of customers, especially children, so customers cannot easily touch poultry.
• Clean and sanitize the areas where poultry are displayed between shipments of new poultry. Be sure to remove debris first so that the disinfectant is applied to a surface that is generally clean. Apply the disinfectant on the surface for the proper contact time listed on the disinfectant label.
• More information on displaying animals in public settings is in the 2017 Compendium of Measures to Prevent Disease Associated with Animals in Public Settings.

• Mail-order hatcheries should provide health-related information to owners and potential purchasers before they buy any poultry (see example below). This should include information about preventing Salmonella infections from contact with poultry.
  • A flyer [PDF – 1 page] describing the risk of Salmonella infections from contact with poultry and prevention recommendations is available online.
• Mail-order hatcheries should develop interventions to help prevent contamination and infection of poultry with Salmonella:
  • Best Management Practices Handbook: A Guide to the Mitigation of Salmonella Contamination at Poultry Hatcheries [PDF – 25 pages]
• Mail-order hatcheries should participate in the voluntary USDA-NPIP U.S. Salmonella Monitored Program [PDF – 17 pages], in which mail-order hatcheries certify their flocks are monitored for Salmonella bacteria that may cause illness in humans. The intent of this program is to reduce the incidence of Salmonella in day-old poultry in the hatchery and give the poultry industry a better opportunity to reduce the incidence of Salmonella in their products.

• Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps 6 hours to 6 days after being exposed to the bacteria.
• The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most people recover without treatment.
• In some people, the illness may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other places in the body.
• Children younger than 5 years of age, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.
• For more information, see Symptoms of Salmonella Infection.