By pH health care professionals

When you were a kid, did your mom warn you about the dangers of salmonella in raw eggs? Whenever you’d bake together, you still had to sneak that spoonful of cookie dough though, right? Now as an adult, you remember the warnings, and wash your hands with vigilance after handling raw chicken meat or raw eggs. But salmonella can still happen -- sometimes in unexpected ways.

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows salmonella cases have been increasing, and it’s because more people are keeping and raising their own chickens.

But how do chicken owners get salmonella from their chickens?

It’s simple: Sharing some sweet salmonella smooches! That’s right; people are kissing their chickens and getting sick. In fact, 13 percent of chicken-related salmonella cases between 1990-2014 were due, in part, to people smooching their beloved poultry, CNN reported.

It was also found that 46 percent of study respondents kept chickens in the house, and 10 percent kept their chickens in the bedroom! That may be a little too close for comfort for those who want to keep salmonella at bay.

So, the lesson here is clear. Be proactive about salmonella by keeping your human-on-chicken affection to a minimum. Puckering up on your poultry? Not the best idea!

And just so we can continue to be proactive, here’s a reminder of how we can avoid salmonella bacteria.

Wash your hands after you do the following:

• Use the toilet

• Change a diaper

• Handle raw meat or poultry

• Clean up pet feces

• Touch reptiles or birds

Enjoy Your Healthy Life!

The pH professional health care team includes recognized experts from a variety of health care and related disciplines, including physicians, health care attorneys, nutritionists, nurses and certified fitness instructors. To learn more about the pH Health Care Team, click here.