SALT LAKE CITY — Don’t “kiss or snuggle” your chicken, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC in a news release this week warned against hugging, kissing or snuggling with your chicken, adding that a salmonella outbreak has affected 52 people in several states.
Public health officials and the CDC said the outbreak is linked to contact with “backyard poultry.”
In total, 21 states have reported cases of salmonella, according to Fox News.
There haven’t been any deaths related to the infections, but 19 percent of those infected have been hospitalized.
Through interviews, the CDC learned that 70 percent fell ill through contact with chicks and ducklings.
The outbreak began in January, according to the CDC.
Tips: Health officials have some tips to protect you from infection.
- Always wash your hands with soap and water.
- Don’t let backyard poultry inside your house.
- Wear different shoes while taking care of the chickens.
- Don’t eat or drink where poultry live or roam.
- Don’t kiss your poultry.
Flashback: In 2015, the CDC warned against kissing or snuggling chickens after a salmonella outbreak, too. More than 180 people in the U.S. came down with the disease that year.
"We do not recommend snuggling or kissing the birds or touching them to your mouth, because that is certainly one way people become infected with salmonella,” Megin Nichols, a veterinarian with the CDC, told NPR at the time.