New Mexico
New Mexico warns against giving baby poultry as Easter gifts – New Mexico Political Report
By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Department of Health is warning people against giving baby poultry as gifts on Easter Sunday this weekend because of chicks and ducklings’ links to salmonella risk.
Children who handle, snuggle or keep poultry inside homes face increased exposure to salmonella bacteria, which causes salmonellosis disease, DOH said in a news release on Tuesday morning.
“Even healthy-looking birds can shed salmonella, which can cause serious infection,” Sarah Shrum Davis, an epidemiologist with the bureau, said in a statement. “To prevent infection, children under 5 should not handle poultry. Make sure older children wash their hands after handling birds or their eggs. And do not kiss or snuggle live poultry.”
Davis told Source NM in an interview on Tuesday that salmonella normally resides in poultry’s gastrointestinal tract without making the birds sick, and when the birds poop, it is present in their feces.
Keeping poultry inside the home “highly increases” the risk of exposure to salmonella, she said.
“People can be concerned — baby chicks and ducklings are small — so maybe they keep them in the kitchen or somewhere warm where they’re safe from predators,” Davis said. “We advise against that.”
The same applies if someone spends time in a bird enclosure, even if they don’t touch the birds themselves, she said. Salmonella can live on surfaces for some period of time so if someone touches a surface where a bird has been, like their bedding, it is possible to be exposed.
“That’s why we recommend that people always wash their hands after they clean the coop, handle anything or touch anywhere the birds might have been,” Davis said. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Boses)
Symptoms of salmonellosis typically include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, according to DOH, but more serious infections can spread from people’s intestines to the blood stream and throughout the body, which can be fatal if left untreated.
A higher risk of developing a serious infection and complications exists among infants, young children, older adults, transplant recipients, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
When Source NM asked the New Mexico Department of Agriculture about whether chicks and ducklings also carry any risk of spreading a strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) called H5N1, spokesperson Jenny Green told Source NM in an email that “the risk of salmonella is far greater than that of HPAI at this time.”
H5N1 was detected in a commercial chicken flock in Roosevelt County last April, and in a private backyard flock of chickens, ducks and geese in Bernalillo County in February.
Green wrote that as young people in 4-H and FFA programs participate this spring in “Chick Days” at farm supply retailers, NMDA and the New Mexico Livestock Board urge people to prevent the spread of both pathogens.
Green shared preventive measures including properly handling and cooking eggs, buying chicks from hatcheries approved by the National Poultry Improvement Plan, isolating new chicks for a month, wearing dedicated clothing and shoes when handling poultry, and reporting sick birds to the Livestock Board by calling 505-841-6161.
NMDA is also pointing people to best practices it published in March and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in April.
For salmonella, DOH recommends preventive measures such as: thoroughly washing hands with soap and water after touching live baby poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam; not allowing live baby poultry inside homes or in kitchens and pantries or other areas where food or drink is prepared, served or stored; and consulting with a doctor if anyone experiences abdominal pain, fever or diarrhea.
As many as 130 cases of salmonellosis are reported in children each year in New Mexico, according to data compiled by the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Bureau at DOH.
In 2022, New Mexico had 465 total cases of salmonellosis among adults and children, according to the latest available DOH data.
DOH cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that salmonella causes about 1.35 million infections in the U.S. each year.
As of Feb. 24, CDC was investigating a salmonella outbreak among eight people, some of them children, linked to pet geckos in California, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com.
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New Mexico
Running hot and cold: New Mexico runners earn 17 All American awards at national XC championships
YOUTH SPORTS
Gianna Chavez earns fourth in boys 8-and-under race
New Mexico had 17 athletes earn All American awards at the 2025 National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship meet held Saturday at snowy Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Indiana.
Gianni Chavez, of Albuquerque Athletics Track, earned his fourth USA Track & Field All American award with a fourth place finish in the 8-and-under boys 2K race. Chavez, an Osuna Elementary third-grader, ran his 2K race in a personal best time of 7 minutes, 44.9 seconds.
The top 25 individual finishers and top three teams earn USATF All American awards.
The Cougar Track Club 8U girls team, based out of Albuquerque, placed second and was led by Antonette Marquez, who finished 12th. Other CTC 8U girls team members include Kimberly Reed (31st), Viola Crabbe Maple (55th), Payton Pacheco (61st), Chloe Chino (85th), Emery Grieco (113th) and Zay’a Cheromiah (149th).
Others individual All American award winners include Ava Denton, of AAT, 16th in 13/14 girls 4K; Brynlee Reed, of CTC, 22nd in 15/16 girls 5K; Sihasin Fleg, of Running Medicine, 21st in 8U girls 2K; Eden Pino, of Running Medicine, 12th in 9/10 girls 3K; Nizhoni Fleg, of Running Medicine, 14th in 17/18 girls 5K; Brady Garcia, of Running Medicine, seventh in 17/18 boys 5K; Justice Jones, of Zia, 14th in 9/10 girls 3K; Emilo Otero Soltero, of Dukes Track Club, 12th in 9/10 boys 3K; Miles Gray, unattached, 21st in 9/10 boys 3K.
Also Saturday, at the Brooks Cross Country Nationals in San Diego, Eldorado’s Gianna Rahmer placed 17th in the girls championship 5K with a time of 18:00.7 and Moriarty’s Carmen Dorsey-Spitz placed 25th 18:09.4.
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An unidentified man is suspected in an East Side robbery and a restaurant burglary on Oct. 20, 2025, in Crime Stoppers of El Paso’s Crime of the Week.
Provided by Crime Stoppers of El Paso
An Anthony, New Mexico man was sentenced to nearly two decades in federal prison for selling methamphetamine from a trailer on his parents’ property, authorities said.
A federal judge sentenced David Amaya, 43, to 19 years and seven months in prison on one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, New Mexico federal court records show. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after he serves his prison term.
U.S. District Judge Margaret I. Strickland handed down the sentence on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the federal courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Williams prosecuted the case.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison and FBI Albuquerque Field Office Special Agent in Charge Justin A. Garris announced Amaya’s sentencing in a joint news release.
Amaya pleaded guilty to the charge in September as part of a plea agreement that dismissed one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, court records show.
Anthony, New Mexico man sells meth on parents’ property
FBI agents began investigating Amaya after he sold methamphetamine to a “controlled buyer” in July and August 2024, the news release states. Controlled buys are when law enforcement uses an undercover agent or a witness to purchase drugs from a suspected drug dealer.
The agents obtained a search warrant on Aug. 22, 2024, for a “specific tow-behind type trailer that Amaya was known to be living in and conducting narcotics transfers out of,” a federal complaint affidavit states. The trailer was located on property owned by Amaya’s parents in Anthony, New Mexico, the news release states.
The trailer did not have a restroom, but agents found a small makeshift bathroom structure with a porta-potty inside next to the trailer. The agents then obtained a warrant to also search the small bathroom structure.
The agents found “a large quantity of white crystalline substance suspected to be methamphetamine” throughout the trailer and bathroom structure, the affidavit states. In the bathroom, agents found a clothing hamper with “a gallon zip lock bag full of suspected methamphetamine” hidden inside.
Agents found a black Ruger .357 caliber handgun containing five rounds of .357 caliber ammunition and a black Mossberg 500 E410 gauge shotgun on the bed inside the trailer, the affidavit states. The news release states agents found “hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”
They also found about 4.42 grams of methamphetamine on the bed and another 26 grams under the bed, the affidavit states. Agents found eight more grams of methamphetamine on a nightstand.
Amaya told agents during an interview that the methamphetamine was his, he had acquired it over a period of time, and did not realize how much it was, the affidavit states. He added he “needed the guns for protection, so people would know he has them, making him safer,” the affidavit states.
In total, the agents found 1,183 grams of methamphetamine.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.
GRANTS, N.M. – The City of Grants is canceling this year’s annual Christmas light parade, citing the safety of the public and their own officers.
Dozens of floats were supposed to roll down Santa Fe Avenue on Saturday night, but Grants police are holding off until next year after three incidents where someone shot at law enforcement officers.
“It was definitely a difficult decision, but due to the incident that took place on December 8, where law enforcement was shot at in the area of Santa Fe Avenue, we made that decision to protect the citizens of Grants,” says Grants Police Chief Maxine Monte.
She says a New Mexico State Police officer was shot at while making a traffic stop. The officer walked away uninjured, but this was too much for the chief.
“We’ve had three different incidents where law enforcement was shot at. One was May of 2025, the other one was August of 2025, and then the recent event of December 8 of 2025,” says Monte.
It’s not a risk the chief wants to take, and points out people would be standing exactly where the last shooting happened.
“We have a lot of citizens that attend our parade, and our main concern was that they were out in the open in the middle of the night, and in the same area that our latest shooting took place.”
Grant residents will be able to see the floats during the day on Saturday. But even some daylight isn’t convincing some residents.
“I’ll be staying home,” said Amy Brigdon. “There’s too many people in the world that want to see bad things happen to other people. I’m not one of them.”
Police still don’t have a suspect for this week’s attempted shooting. Anyone with information is asked to get in touch with the Grants Police Department.
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