This is Salmonella week. Not only are we all supposed to stop eating fresh tomatoes (who knew?) but the Minnesota Department of Health is also warning us away from live chicks and ducklings. Those cute little yellow fluff balls can give you Salmonella as well.

In the last few months seven people in Minnesota have been infected with Salmonella by handling chicks or ducklings. (Those cases were from Salmonella Montevideo, as opposed to the tomatoes, which carry Salmonella Saintpaul. You got to love the names.)

Here’s the slightly yucky part. People get Salmonella from poultry when they handle birds or their droppings and then accidentally touch their mouths or forget to wash their hands before eating or drinking. Even birds that do not look sick may be shedding Salmonella. Though a bird looks clean, it may still have microscopic amounts of germs on its feathers or feet.

The health department suggests that children under the age of five not handle poultry. (I’m not sure they ran that one by the State Fair.) If you or your kids do touch chickens or ducks wash your hands afterwards.

Oh, just in case you were considering it, don’t let the chickens live in your house. Or the tomatoes.