Could your birds make you sick?

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It sounds so easy at first; get a few chicks and build a shelter in the backyard. Who would think that along with these cute little balls of fluff can come a range of health risks that can not only impact you, but also your family and the poultry world at large?

Poultry can seem so ideal for rural life that it’s easy to overlook the health implications that come along with our feathered friends. Whether you’re keeping a couple of hens for eggs or raising 3,000 meat birds, the health risks are the same, and care should be taken to prevent the spread of disease that can affect all humans, and especially children.

So what are the risks? Since the beginning of the domestication of livestock, animals have lived side-by-side with humans, most often successfully — but not always. Human history is filled with stories that relay the impacts that can take place when viruses, bacteria and other pathogens cross between livestock and the humans who tend them.

With a little precaution, poultry pose no risk to the average farmer. Read on to find out more about what can make you sick when you’re working in and around poultry, but don’t let the list below scare you; forewarned is forearmed, and a little biosecurity can go a long way.

Salmonella

Unlike humans, poultry can live with Salmonella  bacteria with no ill effects, and the bacteria can exist in poultry feces, or on eggs, poultry feathers, feet, beaks etc. In a coop the bacteria can spread to equipment, bedding, and even outdoor areas where birds frequent. As a result, Salmonella can spread to any humans who enter the coop/outdoor area, or handle birds in order to care for them.

Young people in particular are susceptible to the Salmonella bacteria. According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), since 2000, there have been 4,794 illnesses, 894 hospitalizations and seven deaths from Salmonella related to live poultry.

Prevention: Wash hands after handling live poultry, remove clothing that comes in contact with areas where poultry frequent, and leave clothing outside the home. Cook poultry thoroughly before consuming.

Campylobacter

The Campylobacter is a bacteria that lives in the intestines of healthy birds, and is one of the most common bacterial causes of diarrheal illness in Canada. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) estimates there are more than one million cases of the illness in the United States alone, mostly as a result of eating raw or undercooked poultry.

Symptoms of Campylobacter infection include diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramps, fever and vomiting, and usually last for roughly a week. As with Salmonella, Campylobacter is found in bird feces, but also on their feathers, feet, beaks and can easily transfer to cages and equipment.

Prevention: See Salmonella (above).

Avian influenza (H5N1)

Avian influenza is a highly infectious respiratory disease that occurs naturally among wild birds and can also infect domestic poultry. While wild birds may carry H5N1 with no ill effects, domesticated poultry take the infection much harder, and mortality rates are high. When birds in a flock become infected, the poultry population on the affected farm is typically euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease.

While cases of infection in human population are rare, and the virus’ current potential to spread from person to person is limited, the avian flu remains a concern; this is primarily because it has a high mortality rate among humans who do contract it, and if the virus were to mutate to become more easily transmissible from person to person, the global impact could be disastrous.

In Canada there have been avian flu outbreaks in Manitoba (2010), British Columbia (2014), and Ontario (2015). According to the World Health Organization, symptoms of H5N1 in humans include a high fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches, which rapidly progresses to difficulty breathing, pneumonia, and neurologic changes.

Prevention:

Prevention is aimed at keeping domestic poultry away from areas frequented by wild birds, cleaning and disinfecting equipment regularly, restricting access to poultry houses, and instituting rigorous biosecurity practices.

Ammonia

Have you ever walked in a poultry house and were nearly knocked over by an odour that stung your eyes? That’s ammonia. Ammonia is a gas created by the decomposition of nitrogen, one of the main substances found in poultry manure.

This noxious gas is easy to detect, and generates a strong, unpleasant odour at roughly 5 to 10 ppm; higher ammonia levels will irritate a human’s eyes, nose, and throat at roughly 20 to 50 ppm. Interestingly, ammonia is just as dangerous to poultry as it is to humans, so it’s in any small farmer’s best interest to keep ammonia at reasonable levels in a poultry coop.

Air quality can quickly diminish in a poorly maintained poultry coop, and according to the Ontario Ministry of Agricultural Food and Rural Affairs, laying hen barns can generated between 33 and 53 ppm of ammonia. Broiler barns with fresh litter generated only 2 to 12 ppm, but when litter was reused, those levels spiked to 70 to 80 ppm. Bird health deteriorates after 25 ppm, and it’s recommended that humans not be exposed to levels greater than 35 ppm for longer than 15 minutes.

Prevention:

Change litter frequently and maintain air circulation. Test air quality to detect noxious levels of ammonia. For small farmers, testing for ammonia levels is easily done with Hydrion ammonia test paper. For farmers looking for greater accuracy, gas detection tubes are commonly used in poultry houses to measure ammonia levels.

Poultry dust

Have you ever cleaned out your chicken coop and stirred up a bunch of dust that filled the air and took hours and hours to settle? That’s poultry dust. This fine, but hazardous particulate is essentially a mixture of everything that you would find in your coop — feed, feathers, feces, bedding, mites and micro-organisms like mould and bacteria.

Poultry dust can be stirred up when cleaning the coop, laying down bedding or bringing in and removing birds, and can be hazardous to humans when breathed in, causing symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath and other signs of asthma. Poultry dust can also sometimes cause allergy symptoms like itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose. In poultry housing, most dust particles are smaller than 5 microns, and are able to be inhaled into the lungs, causing risks to operators.

Prevention:

Purchase and wear a respiratory mask suited for agricultural applications when working in and around the chicken coop. Wet bedding before handling to reduce the spread of dust particles.

Reduce the risk

Do:

  • Do keep air circulating in your coop at all times.
  • Do wash hands after handling poultry.
  • Do remove outer clothing after handling birds, or after working in and around poultry housing.
  • Do cook eggs thoroughly before consuming.
  • Do wear an agricultural-appropriate mask when working in and around a poultry coop.

Don’t:

  • Don’t touch your mouth after handling poultry before you have washed your hands.
  • Don’t clean poultry equipment inside the house—instead keep it outside for cleaning.
  • Don’t allow drinking water in poultry housing to become contaminated with manure.
  • Don’t allow other pets or livestock access to poultry housing.
  • Don’t allow children under five around poultry

— Amy Hogue