Raising backyard poultry has become increasingly popular in Montana and many feed stores across the state offer chicks for sale. Raising your own flock can be a rewarding and fun experience that should include safe handling practices with live poultry to decrease disease risk.

“Even healthy animals can carry organisms that make people sick,” said Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) epidemiologist Dana Fejes.

In 2016, 15 Montanans became ill with Salmonella as part of an outbreak linked to live poultry that sickened 895 people in the U.S., hospitalized 209 of them and resulte...