{"id":56396,"date":"2021-08-15T08:42:28","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T13:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/?p=56396"},"modified":"2025-09-28T16:09:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:09:54","slug":"lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead Exposure in Backyard Poultry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\">Although backyard poultry are kept for a variety of reasons, many owners raise backyard chickens for personal consumption of meat and eggs. There is some concern that poultry can be exposed to heavy metals, such as lead, and then pass lead on to people in their eggs or meat.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u00a0<\/span>This client education handout briefly reviews tips on monitoring flocks for lead exposure.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Chicken-Public-Health-LEAD2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-56397\" src=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lead-screenshot-321x400.png\" alt=\"Lead screenshot \" width=\"200\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lead-screenshot-321x400.png 321w, https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lead-screenshot-500x624.png 500w, https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lead-screenshot.png 561w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Chicken-Public-Health-LEAD2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PDF<\/a> version of this client education handout, or modify the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Chicken-Public-Health-LEAD2.docx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DOCX<\/a> version\u00a0for your veterinary hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although birds are kept for a variety of reasons, many owners raise backyard chickens for personal consumption of meat and eggs. There is some concerns that poultry can be exposed to heavy metals, such as lead, and then pass lead on to people in their eggs or meat. Poultry are most commonly exposed to lead through soil that has been contaminated by lead-based paint flakes that have come off older buildings or even&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":56401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[661,502,1253,940,689],"class_list":["post-56396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chicken","tag-egg","tag-eggshell","tag-lead","tag-yolk","content_types-client-education-handout","topics-toxicology","topics-zoonotic-concerns-public-health","species-avian","species-fowl","channel-resources-education","contributor-pollock"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lead Exposure in Backyard Poultry - LafeberVet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although birds are kept for a variety of reasons, many owners raise backyard chickens for personal consumption of meat and eggs. There is some concerns that poultry can be exposed to heavy metals, such as lead, and then pass lead on to people in their eggs or meat. Poultry are most commonly exposed to lead through soil that has been contaminated by lead-based paint flakes that have come off older buildings or even...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lead Exposure in Backyard Poultry - LafeberVet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although birds are kept for a variety of reasons, many owners raise backyard chickens for personal consumption of meat and eggs. There is some concerns that poultry can be exposed to heavy metals, such as lead, and then pass lead on to people in their eggs or meat. Poultry are most commonly exposed to lead through soil that has been contaminated by lead-based paint flakes that have come off older buildings or even...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LafeberVet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-15T13:42:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-28T21:09:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Cochin-Cheeky-cropped-square.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"737\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christal Pollock, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christal Pollock, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christal Pollock, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice)\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c81ad95bd36f6c15774985ab6dc5d274\"},\"headline\":\"Lead Exposure in Backyard Poultry\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-15T13:42:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-28T21:09:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":85,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/08\\\/Cochin-Cheeky-cropped-square.png\",\"keywords\":[\"chicken\",\"egg\",\"eggshell\",\"lead\",\"yolk\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lead Exposure in Backyard Poultry - LafeberVet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/lead-exposure-in-backyard-poultry\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/08\\\/Cochin-Cheeky-cropped-square.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-15T13:42:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-28T21:09:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c81ad95bd36f6c15774985ab6dc5d274\"},\"description\":\"Although birds are kept for a variety of reasons, many owners raise backyard chickens for personal consumption of meat and eggs. 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