With 271 sick in 37 states from urban poultry, a Denver woman named Mary has launched a business selling chicken diapers to somehow contain the Salmonella.

Faith-based safety

“They’re just really, really tame, and they want to be near humans,” said Mary, petting her two chickens, Henny and Penny. “I wouldn’t have them in the house all the time, but once in a while it’s nice to let them in.”

According to Centers for Disease Control investigators, some of those sick people were reportedly “kissing or cuddling with” the birds, and poultry that appears healthy and clean can still be shedding germs that make people sick, and chickens should not be allowed inside people’s homes.

Candice Burns Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases with the CDC, said an email to 7NEWS: “Just like you wouldn’t walk around your house and touch surfaces with raw, uncooked chicken, you also shouldn’t allow your live poultry to have contact with surfaces in your home.”

In 2012 alone, public health officials uncovered eight outbreaks in which people got sick with germs spread from contact with poultry in backyard flocks.  These outbreaks caused at least 517 illnesses, 93 hospitalizations and fours deaths, according to the CDC. 

Health officials said that for every case of Salmonella illness reported to the CDC, there are about 30 more that don’t get reported. 

“I never had a problem, and I don’t think most people would,” said Mary.