What makes certain animal meats ok to eat raw (fish), while others are not so much (chicken)?
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Partly it is the characteristic of the animal itself – what environment it grows in, etc and partly (or even mostly) about what is done to process the meat of the animal.
Sushi grade fish is caught and frozen immediately. This tends to kill of the parasites which are the main danger to humans. Chickens, on the other hand, tend to be grown and fed in conditions where they can pick up many pathogens that are bad for humans. So it isn’t just “they’re all animals and all animals are the same”
Chickens in particular, tend to be processed in great quantities for them to be economically viable. So the conditions for slaughter and processing invariably end up “grouping” and doing lots of things that can spread pathogens from one carcass to another. The other issue is that chickens are small – so it is really hard to restrict contamination across all their surfaces. The safe approach, therefore, is to recommend cooking chicken thoroughly. Now modern processing and sanitation probably means that the risk of contamination is already fairly low, but it is simply not wise to count on it.
How common bacteria harmfull to human are in the meat.
For chickens the common problem is salmonella and other similar bacteria that are common in chicken farms. The meat in chicken is quite pourus and not that thick. Everythgin is quite close to the intestines where there can be bacteria. The skin it not that thick and you often just plock the feathers.
So it is common with bad bacteria for humans and high risk of it getting into the meat. That said you can eat raw chicken if enough care is take in rasing and butchering them, chicken sashimi is a raw japanese chicken dish [https://zendine.medium.com/raw-chicken-japans-lesser-known-culinary-adventure-a16044a1fc06](https://zendine.medium.com/raw-chicken-japans-lesser-known-culinary-adventure-a16044a1fc06)
If you compare it to beef there is less bad bacteria for human with cattle. The also have more compact meat, thick skin that is removed and a intestines that are easier removed. The result is there is a lot less risk of bad bacteria in beef then chicken. Bacteria that is there is primary on the surface of the meat. If you look at raw beef dishes it is common to cut away the outer layer of a thick picked of meat and use the inner part for a raw dish.
Ther are less bacteria for fish too the chickens. That is for some types of fish. Less risk if caught out at sea compared to grown in pounds in less developed part of the world. Look at [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10826714/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10826714/)
Even chicken meat is frozen right does it mean they are not frozen so well as to kill the bacteria?
The kinds of bacteria present in/around the meat.
If handled carefully and with very clean tools, it is possible to eat raw beef (called “beef tartare”) and have no issues–but you should never eat raw *ground* meat, regardless of source, because that introduces bacteria from the surface and the cutting tools into every part of the meat.
Fewer bacteria harmful to humans are found on fish. Parasites get killed by freezing, and a trained sushi chef can cleanly cut away the dangerous parts. Chicken have salmonella in many, many places, so their meat gets contaminated very easily, and thus you can get the disease from the meat if you eat it raw.
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