AUDIO: DON'T KISS YOUR CHICKENS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning people not to get too cuddly with their pet chickens. Megin Nichols, a veterinarian with the CDC, told National Public Radio, said, “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. While poultry do appear clean, they do carry bacteria.” The CDC says there’s been an uptick in salmonella infections from live poultry, and it’s linked to more people keeping fowl like chickens, ducks and turkeys in their backyards. This year, more than 180 people have contracted salmonella in the U.S. from contact with backyard poultry.
* Salmonella? Does that mean you get chickenella from kissing a fish?
* But if you do kiss your chicken – no tongues.
* Are you sure “kissing your chicken” isn’t a euphemism for something else?
* 180 people have been affected out of a country of 320 million? Well, thank goodness we’re finally addressing this.
* I mean more people are probably hurt by chicken stampedes than that.
* Wait, if kissing chickens is bad where’d we get the expression: “a little peck on the cheek”?
CLIP: This is a great excuse to re-run our classic “Backyard Chicken” song.
