Dark soul level of difficulty right there.
The game is clearly meant to be played over multiple turns tho considering the newgame+ bonuses....
but yeah, it was kinda crazy hard for no reason :/
Might have been possible if they got it in a later order with more bonuses ?
Completely speculating here, but the overall risk of infection from raw chicken in medieval times might have been lower than today due to the smaller scale of farming and less industrialized poultry practices
Also damn I 100% expected that scenario to go a lot further