CDC: Yes, you can dress up your pet chicken for Halloween

Federal health officials say it’s perfectly okay to dress chickens in Halloween costumes, contrary to media reports suggesting otherwise.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said it had not warned people against dressing chickens in Halloween costumes, citing “erroneous media reports” in issuing its statement.

Still, the CDC reiterated that backyard chickens need to be handled carefully, which includes washing hands after contact and not snuggling or kissing feathered friends. 

National news outlets in recent days reported that the CDC had issued such a alert. 

In July, federal health officials warned that live poultry in backyard flocks had been linked to several multistate outbreaks of salmonella infections, which sickened several hundred people across 44 states.

Raising chickens in urban areas is a growing trend, with Las Vegas one of the latest cities to approve residential coops. A study of 50 of the most populated U.S. cities found 93 percent allow backyard flocks. In 2013, almost 1 percent of all U.S. households surveyed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported owning backyard fowl, and 4 percent more planned to start in the next five years.