Mail-Order Chickens Trigger Salmonella Outbreak, CDC Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-30/mail-order-chickens-trigger-salmonella-outbreak-cdc-says.html

Baby chickens from a mail-order hatchery that supplies backyard flocks sickened at least 316 people in 43 states over eight years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The chicks were contaminated with salmonella, the most common cause of foodborne illness in the U.S., according to a report today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

About 1 million illnesses, 19,000 hospitalizations and 370 deaths are due to salmonella poisoning in the U.S. every year, according to the article. Poultry are a common carrier of the bacteria and health authorities are increasingly concerned as the mail-order hatching industry reported record sales “due to increased interest in raising backyard flocks and urban chickens,” in the first half of 2009, the report said.