Hedgehogs can be Hazardous to your Health
Hundreds of millions of legally and illegally imported exotic pets are flooding into the USA and Europe every year. A future exotic pet may be running around in an African desert one day and find itself transported across the world to some family’s living room in say, Denver, within a week. Often a lot of these pets do not go through any quarantine procedures and allowed into the country and our homes after cursory health screening. Many owners are unaware that their exotic pet may be hazardous for the healt of their families.
Zoonotic Diseases
Zoonotic diseases are those that can jump from animals to humans. In the USA today, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that zoonotic diseases are responsible for 75% of all emerging infectious diseases.
Below are only some of the germs and diseases your hedgehog could infect you with.
A recent CDC report lists a scary number of confirmed and potential zoonotic diseases that pet and wild hedgehogs can carry. The confirmed diseases include Salmonella, Yersina, pseudotubercolosis, Mycobacterium marinum, Herpesvirus including human herpes simplex and Rabies. The potential diseases they can carry include Yersina pestis (also responsible for Bubonic plague) and hemorrhagic fever.
Salmonella
Salmonella is normally contracted from contaminated food. However the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that 5% of infections are caused by contact with exotic pets. For example they estimate that nearly eighty thousand Americans contract Salmonella from their pet reptiles every year.
In 1994 African Pygmy Hedgehogs were responsible for passing on a rare form of Salmonella (S. tilene), to a 10 month old girl who became the first ever confirmed case of this serotype in a human in the USA. Her family kept a herd of approximately 80 hedgehogs. Significantly the baby hadn’t ever touched the hedgehogs herself. A family member who had handled the hedgehogs passed the infection on to her. The same serotype was later diagnosed in many other cases.
Ringworm
Despite its name ringworm or Tinea is not a worm but is actually a fungal skin infection. One source of ringworm is known to be pet and wild hedgehogs. Over the past few months HedgehogsAsPets.com has been covering a story where three people were infected with ringworm by two hoglets bought from the same breeder.
The story becomes even more disconcerting when it transpires that the person in question had somehow evaded Britain’s stringent quarantine regulations and managed to import several hedgehogs directly into the UK from Germany. Hedgehogs imported into the UK would normally be required to spend 6 months in government approved facilities.
In this story the breeder claims that the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) put aside their normal procedures and permitted her to quarantine her new pets in her house, (which incidentally was already a veritable zoo containing snakes, lizards, rats, other hedgehogs and sugar gliders). Subsequently before it was learned that the German breeder’s herd was infected with ringworm, she had managed to spread the disease to the parents of the two hoglets that she later sold and infected three other people.
Along with the disease side of the story, it also exemplifies just what may occur when you purchase your pet from less than honest dealers or breeders. After six months, notwithstanding she has said she will refund part of their vet’s costs, she still hasn’t done so.
Reducing the risk of infection
To reduce the risk of infection simply go to this site and follow the advice they give there: http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/browse_by_animal.htm.
Buying your pet from a reputable breeder rather than a pet store or pet distributor, should also provide you with more guarantees about where the animal came from.
Even though the real risk of being infected by your pet is relatively small, owners should keep it in mind when handling their pets. Follwing the advice on the CDC site will help you to reduce the risk of infection to a minimum.
Salmonella and Our Pets
Salmonella and Our Pets -With the recent Peanut Butter Recall, Salmonella once more has become headline news. Salmonella is a bacterium that can affect both humans and animals and can be passed from human to animal and animal to humans (reverse zoonotic disease). Most infections occur through ingestion of contaminated food or water or through close contact with an infected host. In the Peanut Butter recall, contaminated peanuts were used as a flavoring or an additive in products including pet food and treats. Luckily, most dogs and cats infrequently develop disease, but handling the infected treats and then handling food or not washing your hands after handling infected products can transmit the bacteria to humans.
Signs of Samonellosis can include acute diarrhea, cramps, vomiting and dehydration. Babies, the elderly and immune suppressed are more susceptible to infection and can be exposed by contact with pets or humans harboring the bacteria without showing symptoms. The disease can cause severe debilitation and sometimes death in those that are most vulnerable. Salmonella is most often found in raw meat, poultry, eggs and sometimes vegetables
Cooking products to the proper temperature kills the bacteria. Most often, infections occur with cross contamination, such as cutting raw meat on a cutting board and then cutting vegetables for the salad on the same cutting board or handling a contaminated product then eating or handling food without washing hands. Most disinfectants and dilute bleach will kill the bacteria. Feeding raw meat, poultry or eggs to pets can result with Salmonella infection in our pets. Since some pets may not develop symptoms but harbor the bacteria, they may pass Salmonella in their feces for months and may cause infections in humans.
What can you do to reduce your exposure to Salmonella?
- Always cook food thoroughly. Do not ingest drinks or foods containing raw eggs (This includes licking the beaters when making cake mixes, a bad habit I am most guilty of)
- Wash hands after handling raw meats, poultry, and pets: especially turtles, baby chicks, reptiles and pet feces.
- Wash your hands before eating. (Mothers are always right)
- Wash utensils, cutting boards and plates after handling raw meat and poultry. (When grilling, always use a different plate when taking the cooked meat off the grill.)
- Do not feed pets raw meat, poultry or eggs.
- Wash hands after handling pet treats (pig ears, rawhides, peanut butter treats) or after playing with pets, especially turtles, birds, baby chicks and reptiles.
- Washing hands after changing diapers, or handling raw foods, will prevent cross contamination.
- If you are served undercooked meats at a restarurant, do not hesitate to send it back for further cooking. Also, you may want to ask for fresh salsa if it looks like it may have been left out too long. Salsa dips have been a source of Salmonella infections in the past.
- For extra protection, carry a hand sanitizer in your purse or car.
I have more tips and links to web sites concerning the Salmonella Peanut Butter recall at anchor 2 You can also view Facts about Salmonella at CDC.org.
