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CDC Warns Against Dressing Up Chickens For Halloween

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The CDC has a strange request for chicken farmers and anyone who has chickens: don't dress your chicken up for Halloween.

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The CDC says chickens are carriers of bacteria, including salmonella.

When dressing chickens up, whether in a costume or a sweater, it's easy for a person to be exposed to the harmful bacteria that lives on live poultry.

One woman in Louisiana who owns chickens says she regularly dresses up her birds as the temperatures drop.

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"They have their bare skin exposed, so I just like to put on a T-shirt or a sweater," said chicken owner Stephanie Morse. "They are part of my family, it's like they are my babies."

The CDC also says it's important to wash your hands with soap and water right after touching live poultry or coming into contact with anything in the places where they live and roam.

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