CDC Closes the Backyard Poultry Salmonella Outbreak With 1,253 Sick and Two Deaths in the U.S.

The CDC published on September 24 the final update on the multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to contact with backyard poultry (chickens and ducks raised at private homes), which is now considered closed. In total, 1,253 people were sick in 46 states and Puerto Rico, of whom 256 were hospitalized and two died. The outbreak involved several Salmonella serotypes over the course of the year.

Unlike an outbreak caused by a contaminated food, in this case the main route of transmission is direct contact with the birds and their environment: chickens and ducklings can carry Salmonella in the intestine and on their feathers without showing signs of illness, and the bacterium reaches hands, footwear and household surfaces. The CDC stressed that any backyard bird can carry Salmonella even if it looks healthy and clean, and that children under five, adults aged 65 or older and immunocompromised people are at higher risk of severe illness.

The recommendations include washing hands with soap and water immediately after touching the birds or their environment, keeping young children from kissing or handling chicks and ducklings, and one point that connects directly with food safety: refrigerating collected eggs promptly and cooking them until they reach 160 °F (71 °C) inside, since eggs from home production do not go through the controls of a commercial plant.

For TAAG, the magnitude of this outbreak is a reminder that the reservoir of Salmonella in birds exists long before the processing plant. In commercial poultry production, that translates into the need to verify Salmonella from the flock and the rearing environment through to the egg and the meat, and not only in the final product.