Biosecurity and Backyard Chickens

Sorry, it’s been busy. I had a baby last spring, and my little one has kept me very busy.

We have wrapped up our feed store sampling and will most likely not be doing further backyard flock sampling. We are still working on analyzing the chick data, but we have submitted our analysis of Salmonella and Campylobacter for peer review. Brief highlights below:

• From 2022-2024, we found that:
  • 13% of farms had S. enterica (9/70 farms)
    • Salmonella was more likely on farms with multiple types of poultry (e.g., chickens plus turkeys or chickens plus ducks); each additional species present increased the risk by 7.6 fold
    • Salmonella was also more likely on farms with younger birds (probably due to high rates of S. enterica in hatchling chicks).
    • 83% of the Salmonella was from types of Salmonella that make humans sick, but rarely make birds sick.
  • 19% of farms had Campylobacter (12/63 farms)
    • Campylobacter was 27 times more likely on farms with multi-age flocks (e.g., young chicks plus adult birds)
    • Campylobacter was 11 times more common on farms with multiple types of poultry (e.g., chickens plus turkeys). Each additional species increased the risk by a factor of 4.8

Recommendations to reduce your risk:

• Don’t mix poultry species. Keep chickens separate from turkeys, ducks, meat birds, and geese.
• Don’t mix ages. If possible, replace your entire flock at the same time, and clean the coop and equipment in between (soap and water, followed by bleach or another sanitizer).

Andrea Etter

I don’t think I’ve done a post on this before, so here goes… Ever wonder where chickens get Salmonella from? It turns out there are a lot of options. In our research it seems adults most likely get Salmonella from the environment, feed, wild animals/birds, or each other (yes, feed can contain Salmonella–probably from birds/mice/other animals pooping in it). Chicks, however, often arrive from hatcheries already infected, which may mean they are born infected with it (option A). Either way, it can get you sick. Fortunately, research on commercial birds indicates that many/most infected chicks clear Salmonella by adulthood.

2022 was our third year of agricultural supply store sampling for Salmonella. We sampled at 9 stores across Vermont, collecting a total of 195 samples from March-July 2022.

So, what did we find?

Overall positivity rates were slightly higher this year (40.5% vs 34%). Hatcheries not participating in NPIP Salmonella monitoring programs had higher rates of Salmonella in 2022 than 2021, but we added a new hatchery for that category this year and had more samples overall in the non-NPIP category. Hatcheries participating in Salmonella monitoring programs had roughly the same rate of Salmonella as in 2021.

Breaking out the data by hatchery, you can see that there are differences in Salmonella rates between hatcheries, you can see that Hoovers hatchery has the highest rates of Salmonella, while Townline had the lowest. NOTES: We only have one year of data for Ridgeway, so that rate may change as we get more years of data and samples. Hoovers store A had the lowest biosecurity, which may explain the high rates of Salmonella, but Store B still had higher rates of Salmonella than any other store.

Takeaways?

• Salmonella is super common in baby chicks sold to hobby poultry enthusiasts
• Hatchery participation in the NPIP Salmonella monitoring program does not improve Salmonella rates in chicks
• You should assume baby chicks have Salmonella and take precautions
  • Don’t let kids put chicks near their face. Chicks are messy and will have poop on their legs and possibly feathers
  • If you let kids pet the chicks (which is ok), make sure they wash their hands thoroughly afterwards
  • Don’t put chicks in the kitchen; dust can contain fecal particles.
    • The best place for chicks is a basement, warm garage, or unused bathroom–something that isn’t in the main part of the house and harder for any small children to access.
  • Don’t wash chick water containers or feed containers in the kitchen sink. A bathtub or utility sink is better

—Dr. Etter

We have been busy processing samples this summer and going through the review process with our first paper from this project, but we’re looking forward to gathering some more backyard flock samples in August and September. Interested in participating? Check out the options here.

We will be at the International Association for Food Protection July 31-August 3rd, presenting our research from 2021 on chicks from agricultural supply stores. Our abstract is below:

Curious about the adult side of the project? Our project abstract is below, and you can find the preprint on ResearchGate.

The popularity of backyard chickens has been growing steadily over the past ten years, with Covid-19 stay at home orders in 2020 providing an added boost in popularity. Concurrently, cases of salmonellosis from live poultry exposure have also risen. Previous research on backyard chicken owners has focused primarily on urban chicken owners, which may have differing knowledge and biosecurity habits from rural backyard chicken owners. The goal of this study was to investigate the prevalence of S. enterica in rural and urban flocks of chickens in the state of Vermont and to determine what attitudes towards and knowledge about S. enterica owners had, as well as what biosecurity practices they used. We conducted two surveys in Vermont between 2019-2022; a pilot study tied to sampling for Salmonella enterica in backyard chicken flocks from 2019-2021 and a statewide study in 2022 to determine the prevalence of backyard chickens in Vermont and obtain representative survey data from backyard chicken owners. We found (i) overall, 19% (8/42) backyard chicken flocks from 2019-2021 had S. enterica, but S. enterica rates varied substantially by year; (ii) backyard chicken owners were wealthier and more educated than the average Vermonter and generally lived in rural areas; (iii) participants in the statewide survey had much lower uptake of good biosecurity habits compared to the pilot survey; (iv) despite increased messaging about backyard chicken-associated salmonellosis and good biosecurity measures over the past several years, uptake of biosecurity measures is inconsistent, and rates of unsafe practices such as kissing or cuddling chickens have increased in Vermont. Overall, the data indicate the need for improved messaging on biosecurity and risks associated with backyard chickens

DeCicco, M., Larsen, K.M., Hood, K., Etter, A.J. Salmonella enterica Frequency in Backyard Chickens in Vermont and Biosecurity Knowledge and Practices of Owners.

We’ll post a non-technical abstract at some point soon.

~Andrea Etter

We are several weeks into our 2022 chick sampling and have so far we have processed 23 samples. We have found several positive so far, so we’re keeping an eye on things to see what happens! Of course, the vast majority of chick days are still to come, so it’s too soon to know if this year will be better or worse for Salmonella rates.

Sequencing of last year’s isolates is also in process, so we should soon start finding out what types of Salmonella the chicks and chickens from last year were infected. Why is this important? Not all types of Salmonella are likely to cause human illness. We’ll also be able to learn from the sequences whether or not these Salmonella have resistance to antibiotics and, if so, if they are resistant to medically-important antibiotics like Ampicillin. Stay tuned!

Curious to get the “deep scoop” on this project? Check out this webinar we co-hosted with Nicolle Ferrier of Sugar Feather Farm.

We’re nearly done with processing all this year’s samples. Some turnover in lab members has led to some sample data getting lost & samples needing to be reprocessed (ugh!). But such is life. The team is now solidified and fully trained, so we’re making good progress & will hopefully close out the 2021 samples prior to the end of 2021 \_(._.)_/

We’re also planning next year’s sampling and trying to build organizational systems that accommodate the high number of samples that we’ll hopefully get. Last year proved we needed these systems; this year we plan to have them in place. Live and learn?

A major goal for next sampling season is to get more adult backyard chicken flocks enrolled and sampled. We sampled 28 in our first year (2019), but only 10 in 2020 and about the same number this past year. I’d like to get another 30 this year (2022). We shall see. Our work relies on (1) people volunteering their flocks and (2) having students who are able to help advertise and drive the project, so it’s tricky. I think I have #2 covered, but the sampling schedule with the chicks from March-June also tends to distract from the adult BYC effort.

Interested in volunteering your flock?

email me at andrea.etter@uvm.edu and reference “BYC-VT” or “Backyard chickens”