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Urban Chickens/Poultry: Biohazard Risk From Backyard Chickens: Negligible To Low

David A. Halvorson addresses concerns regarding the risk posed by backyard chickens, specifically in urban settings with fewer than 10 hens. He concludes that such flocks are unlikely to pose significant disease or food safety risks compared to commercial farms. However, he notes that moderately sized poultry operations may have increased risks due to less biosecurity and greater interaction with other poultry and wildlife.

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Paul Hughes
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339 views1 page

Urban Chickens/Poultry: Biohazard Risk From Backyard Chickens: Negligible To Low

David A. Halvorson addresses concerns regarding the risk posed by backyard chickens, specifically in urban settings with fewer than 10 hens. He concludes that such flocks are unlikely to pose significant disease or food safety risks compared to commercial farms. However, he notes that moderately sized poultry operations may have increased risks due to less biosecurity and greater interaction with other poultry and wildlife.

Uploaded by

Paul Hughes
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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David A.

Halvorson
Charter Diplomate American College of Poultry Veterinarians

______________________________________________________________________ 1998 Garden Avenue St. Paul, Minnesota 55113 February 29, 2012 To: Paul Hughes Fr: David Halvorson, DVM Re: Question on risk from backyard chickens The term "backyard chickens" is not well defined, so we'll use your example of less than 10 hens in an urban environment as our starting point. From that point, we'll assume that these chickens are not routinely moved to poultry auctions and spend most of their lives at home which is in the USA or Canada. (Third world backyard chickens may be raised quite differently and so we are not speaking of them here.) That said, the urban flock of six to ten female chickens is very unlikely to pose disease risk to other poultry and is very unlikely to pose a nuisance risk to neighbors or the community. The possible food safety risk is comparable to food raised on commercial farms - there are some advantages to both systems. I would categorize the risk of disease of poultry or risk of food safety of humans as negligible to low. Commercial poultry also have very low risk, when reared in total confinement. If a producer is smaller than "commercial" size but bigger than backyard size there are areas for risk to increase. Often moderately sized poultry operations, with less biosecurity in force than larger farms and more poultry than backyard farms, may have multiple species and ages, have contact with poultry markets, and attract wild birds.

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