Since last February, 60 people in 23 states have reported being struck ill with salmonella, with approximately 30 percent of them requiring hospitalization. According to the Cincinnati news outlet WLWT 5, the Centers for Disease Control believes that Mount Healthy Hatcheries, a company in Hamilton County, Ohio that specializes in selling baby chicks and ducks via mail, is responsible for the outbreak. The authorities do not know exactly where the salmonella originated, because Mounty Health sources from multiple flocks of birds, but the hatchery has been indicated in outbreaks in 2012 and 2013. “The kids like to pick those babies up and kiss them and cuddle them, and it is not a very good idea,” says Mike Samet of the Hamilton County Health Department. “As you can see, they carry the bacteria and they can cause some pretty nasty consequences.”

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