Dairies may not be allowed to let chickens roam

PAYSON — Four fluffy baby chicks scuttle out from under their mother's wings, chirping as they weave a path between the legs of a slightly annoyed goat. Dairyman Lars Woolsey, the picture of an old-time farmer in his straw hat and well-worn overalls, scratches the goat's ears. His eyes twinkle as he observes the little animals.

"I keep the chicks because the people who come to buy my milk bring their families," Woolsey said with a wink. "The kids like to see the animals."

But the chickens, four of about 30 pecking around the dairy, may have to leave. After a Utah County Health Department study linked the chickens to an outbreak of food-borne illness that sickened more than 60 people in March, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is making a move to prohibit dairy farmers from allowing chickens to roam freely among their cows, said Kyle Stephens, deputy commissioner for UDAF.

"Up until this point, we were not fully aware that having chickens in and around the cows was a health hazard," he said. "It's difficult to draw these conclusions until you get a cluster of illnesses that focus on one product."

Stephens said inspectors took note of the chickens during the investigation of Woolsey's Dairy in April. But Woolsey was in compliance with all of the current health regulations, Stephens said. The administrative rule that would require farmers to pen up their chickens will be reviewed this week, he said.

The bacterium that causes campylobacter is carried by fowl, said John Amadio, a Utah Department of Health epidemiologist who worked on the Utah County Health Department study. The health department suspects the bacteria were transferred to the cows and goats when the animals came in contact with the feces of the chickens, which roam the farm freely, Amadio said.

People became ill when drinking the milk, which is not pasteurized.

"There were chickens all over the place," Amadio said. "They were spreading the bacteria."

The Utah County Health Department tested 71 different foods in the study, and only raw milk from Woolsey's Dairy showed a strong connection to the illness, Amadio said. A person who drank raw milk was 448 times more likely to fall ill with campylobacter than one who didn't drink it, he said.

Joy Holbrook, a Utah County Health Department epidemiologist who worked on the study, said she is "fairly convinced" Woolsey's raw milk was the source of the food-borne illness.

The bacteria in feces samples taken from infected people all matched, she said, indicating it came from the same place. Anecdotal evidence pointed to Woolsey's Dairy, she said.

But the milk samples UDAF took from the dairy farm tested negative for the bacteria.