Contact with animals was the source three multistate Salmonella outbreaks in 2014. Together the outbreaks sickened 570 people, at least 20 percent of whom were so sick they required hospitalization.
From January 2014 to May 2014, a total of 41 people in 21 states were sickened after handling frozen rodents used as food for pet reptiles, amphibians, and birds of prey. Case patients in this outbreak ranged in age from younger than 1 year old to 69 years old, with a median age of 21. Fifty-four percent of those sickened were female.
From February 2014 to September 2014, 363 people in 43 states were sickened by contact with backyard poultry flocks. Thirty five percent of case patients were 10 years old or younger. The outbreak was linked to chicks, ducklings and other live poultry from Mt. Healthy Hatcheries in Ohio, the same mail-order hatchery that has been associated with Salmonella outbreaks in 2012 and 2013.
From January 2012 to June 2014, 166 people in 36 states were sickened through contact with bearded dragons. Fifty nine percent of those sickened were 5 years old or younger.
