FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December, 1999
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Karen Allanach: (301) 548-7778
Howard White: (301) 258-3072
Washington - Behind the glass terrarium, a pet iguana looks pretty harmless. The creature is watchful and quiet, but holds a deadly secret that will make you think twice about having reptiles as pets. Iguanas, snakes, lizards and all other reptiles produce Salmonella naturally and are transmitting critical infections to humans that in at least one case has been fatal.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation's largest animal protection organization, is issuing a consumer warning advising the public to not purchase reptiles as pets as they have been identified as a threat to human health, a charge supported by a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
On November 12, the CDC, a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released a report on reptile-associated Salmonella infection. The report states that reptile-associated Salmonella infections in humans have increased in recent years as the popularity of pet reptiles has risen. The report presents scientific evidence that "reptile-related salmonellosis continues to pose a substantial health threat to humans."
Each year, 93,000 people get Salmonella infections from pet reptiles. Thousands of people are hospitalized each year because of reptile- associated infection. Salmonella is a naturally occurring organism that lives in the gut of all reptiles. It is shed in the feces, contaminating the skin of a reptile as well as its enclosure and any other surface with which it comes in contact. It is not possible to stop reptiles from shedding Salmonella.
The CDC report states that Salmonella infection can result in serious illness including sepsis and meningitis and can particularly affect infants and elderly people.
In the report, many Salmonella cases are cited including that of the death of a five-month- old Wisconsin boy from salmonellosis who lived in a house with a pet iguana and a 10-week hospitalization of a three- week-old Arizona boy who was exposed to a relative's iguana.
The HSUS has long recommended against keeping reptiles as pets because of the inhumane treatments reptiles suffers and the conservation problems associated with removing them from the wild. Pet reptiles often do not survive long, with many dying within a year of purchase. Wild-caught reptiles are particularly prone to suffer and die due to mistreatment such as incorrect nutrition and poor housing.
Many wild populations of reptile species such as the American bog turtle have been detrimentally impacted by the pet trade, leading some species to become protected under the Endangered Species Act. The HSUS urges local governments to ban the giving away of reptiles as prizes at fairs and in other venues and to prohibit any event that brings the public into direct contact with reptiles.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than seven million members and constituents.
For more information on Salmonella and Reptiles you can visit the CDC website.
Arcamax Weird News for Dec, 24, 1999
It Never Did THAT Before...
Police in Port Orange, Florida, say the prime suspect in yesterday's death of a 32-year-old man is his pet python.
They say it appears that when Robert Raulerson opened the cage of his 12-and-a-half-foot-long reticulated python to give it medication, it attacked him...sinking its fangs into his forehead and then wrapping itself around his body to suffocate him.
The investigation into Raulerson's death is continuing.
The snake was one of five pythons living in Raulerson's home. It was euthanized...while the other snakes were taken to the Halifax Humane Society.
Reticulated pythons are the largest of snakes...growing to a length of 30 feet. They're considered very aggressive and do not make good pets.
By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN
Two couriers for an international rare-reptile smuggling ring have pleaded guilty to sneaking dozens of endangered animals into Canada and the U.S.
Deborah Abbott, 34, of Vancouver, was fined $5,000 in a Windsor court Wednesday for smuggling 14 Madagascar tree boas, 26 radiated tortoises and six spider tortoises into Canada in 1995. The reptiles were worth about $83,000.
Dale Hickson, 59, of Windsor, was fined $1,500 for smuggling them into the U.S. after they arrived in Canada.
The reptiles were brought to Pearson airport in Abbott's suitcase on a flight from Germany, said Gerry Brunet of the Canadian Wildlife Service.
"She was a paid courier," Brunet said. "She made false Customs declarations to enter the country."
The creatures have been placed with reptile farms and zoos.
Japanese Reptiles Freaking Out Ministers...
Government ministers took time out from a busy schedule of debates over the economy and financial markets to tackle another slippery issue -- reptiles on the loose in the streets of Japan. Not lions, tigers and bears, but Iguanas, Snakes and turtles and even your occasional alligator have been seen on Japanese streets. They're getting away from owners and are now on the loose, posing a threat to citizens and the delicate Japanese ecosystem as well.
The number reptiles kept as pets in Japan has been creeping higher, partly due to cramped apartments where conventional four-footed animals such as dogs and cats are often forbidden in leases because of their mess and noise.
01:10 AM ET 01/13/99
Alfalfa Sprouts, Salmonella Linked
Alfalfa Sprouts, Salmonella Linked
By LINDSEY TANNER=
Associated Press Writer=
CHICAGO (AP) _ Alfalfa sprouts, used as a garnish on everything
from salads to hamburgers, sickened an estimated 20,000 people in
the United States in two salmonella outbreaks in 1995, researchers
reported today.
Consumers ``should consider this danger when deciding whether to
eat alfalfa sprouts,'' said the researchers led by Dr. Chris Van
Beneden, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
Although new methods to prevent salmonella poisoning are being
tried, the researchers said they may not be adequate. Their work
was reported in today's Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Salmonella is a strain of bacteria found in animal feces. It
generally causes nausea but can be fatal in older people, infants
and those with weak immune systems.
Tainted alfalfa sprout seeds caused a 1995 outbreak in the
Northwest and another one that same year from Georgia to Vermont,
the researchers said. They said the same seeds sickened an
undetermined number of people in Denmark.
Although only about 700 salmonella cases were reported, the
researchers estimated more than 20,000 people in the United States
alone were sickened since only a fraction of cases are usually
reported. No one died.
The seeds were traced to a seed broker in the Netherlands. The
researchers suspect the seeds were tainted either in the field by
animal feces or wastewater, or by an infected worker at a
seed-packaging plant.
Alfalfa sprouts were first implicated as a source of illness in
1973, but their image as a health food may have spared them the
scrutiny given more widely recognized sources for salmonella like
meat, chicken and eggs.
``Because it was a health food, it wasn't as highly
suspicious,'' Van Beneden said. Also, sprouts were not as popular
25 years ago as they are now.
The head of the International Sprout Growers Association
acknowledged the salmonella scare has hurt the industry but said
the findings predate new methods for safeguarding seeds.
``The old techniques just didn't work, but the new ones will,''
said association president Nancy Snider, who owns a sprout farm in
Maryland.
The outbreaks forced a number of growers out of business. Since
then, Snider said, some growers have begun using a chlorination
process approved last fall by the Environmental Protection Agency
to decontaminate seeds.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) - A boa constrictor can swallow a lot. But a heating pad? Well, it wasn't plugged in.
Ron and Bonnie Probst took their 8-foot pet, Teardrop, to the animal clinic after it swallowed its prey.
The object - heating pad, cord and control unit - showed up plainly on the X- ray taken by the surprised veterinarian, Dr. James Gansberg.
The 2-year-old snake was shaking off any worries, seemingly happy with a nice, big meal, Gansberg said.
``This heating pad apparently satisfied all the criteria for food as far as this snake was concerned,'' he said. ``It was warm and fuzzy and had some hard objects inside that must have felt something like bones.''
Still, Gansberg went ahead and removed the heating pad. General anesthesia kept Teardrop from feeling any pain during the 2 1/2-hour surgery.
During the past 16 years, Gansberg has worked on sick ostriches and even an iguana with a broken leg. But, he said, ``This was definitely the most interesting foreign body we've removed from any species.''
AP-NY-07-02-97 0916EDT
