According to a December 17th report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an extensive ongoing outbreak of salmonellosis involving 1,722 diagnosed cases occurred between January 14th 2020 and November 27th 2020.  Of these cases 33 percent required hospitalization with one fatality.  Children younger than five accounted for 24 percent of cases. Salmonellosis was identified in all 50 states with at least 17 multistate outbreaks.

Two thirds of patients interviewed reported direct contact with either chicks or ducklings during the week preceding onset of symptoms.  Sources of chicks and ducklings included websites, hatcheries and feed stores. In both Oregon and Kentucky, the causal organism was isolated from either hens or their environment common to patients confirming the source of infection.

Of 1,641 diverse serotypes isolated, 848 demonstrated resistance to one or more antibiotics with streptomycin (46 percent resistance) and tetracycline (46 percent) predominant. Eleven other antibiotics or chemotherapeutics were ineffective ranging from 0.5 percent to 3.7 percent of the isolates.  It is significant that ciprofloxacin was the most effective antibiotic with only 0.1 percent of isolates showing resistance.

The CDC issued suggestions for feed stores and owners of backyard chickens to prevent infection although these measures will not completely prevent transmission from chicks and ducklings to human contacts.

It is apparent that backyard chickens represent the turtles of the 1970’s with respect to transmission of salmonellosis to children.