High winds can worsen pathogen spread at outdoor chicken farms in the US

Farmers who keep their chickens outdoors may want to watch the weather. A study of chicken farms in the West found that high winds increased the prevalence of Campylobacter in outdoor flocks, a bacterial pathogen in poultry that is the largest single cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. Researchers found that about 26% of individual chickens had the pathogen at the "open environment" farms in the study, which included organic and free-range chicken farms. High winds the week prior to sampling and the farms' location in more intensive agricultural settings were linked to a greater prevalence of Campylobacter. "Farmers need to be aware of the risk," said co-lead author Olivia Smith, a recent Washington State University Ph.D. graduate in the School of Biological Sciences. "These environmental factors are influencing if the poultry are going to have foodborne pathogens, so farmers need to be aware of what's around ...