A recent report in the CDC house journal MMWR* documented 1,072 cases of salmonellosis associated with backyard poultry resulting in 247 hospitalizations.  Serotypes included S. Braenderup, Enteritidis, Indiana, Infantis, and Typhimurium with multiple states involved.  The report also included documentation of S. Thompson in a breastfed neonate who contracted infection within days of returning to a home with his mother after delivery.  It is presumed that infection was acquired from environmental contamination or from a shedder of the pathogen within the household.  Based on whole genome sequencing, identical isolates were recovered from the infant, the chickens and their environment.

The report cautioned personal biosecurity following contact with backyard chickens.  Taking into account the incidence rate of chicken acquired salmonellosis and the 24 percent hospitalization rate, it is questioned whether the benefits of maintaining backyard poultry are commensurate with the risk if not inevitability of infection and its consequences.

* Ladd-Wilson SG, et al. Neonatal Salmonellosis Associated with Backyard Poultry. MMWR 73:321-322. (2024)