Salmonella and Reptiles

[guidofatherof5]

I found this article on "The Reptile Report" and thought I would post a small section of it and offer a link to anyone who wants to read the full article.

"APPA’s 2009 survey indicated that there were approximately 11,000,000 reptiles living as pets in the U.S. Nineteen cases of salmonellosis. Eleven million reptiles. That means that less than one thousandth of one percent of the pet reptiles in this country were a source of laboratory confirmed salmonellosis in 2009."

Salmonella and Reptiles | The Herp Alliance

[Greg'sGarters]

Very interesting Steve, I will be able to use this knowledge now when telling people how rare salmonella is among reptiles. Thank you for sharing this!

[thamneil]

Good information to have.

[chris-uk]

Of course there are lies, damn lies and statistics...

It doesn't mean salmonella is carried by very few snakes, it means that only a handful of cases of salmonella were reported and followed up to find a source that turned out to be a reptile. Which could mean that many snakes are carrying and the majority of keepers take sensible hygiene precautions, or that they are getting infections and not reporting them, or reporting an infection which is not properly identified.

So before using this report in a persuasive argument you should understand that: there are significant holes in the data which prevents you being able to say that a very small proportion of captive reptiles harbour salmonellosis; the article linked above has been written by a pro-reptile person who is either ignorant of the gaps in their logic, or has written something as deliberately biased as an anti-reptile person would slant it the other way.

The article is a good foundation for an argument, but not difficult to counter.

[chris-uk]

This article (linked in the comments of the article Steve links to above) is a good source:

AQUA-TERRA-VITA: Exotic Plants and Animals for Aquariums and Terrariums

My main criticism of the original article is that the author didn't grasp the concept that 40,000 lab confirmed cases doesn't conflict with an estimated 70,000 cases caused by reptiles. The apparent discrepancy is due to reporting rates of salmonella.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

A few years ago I developed a salmonella infection in my kidneys and bladder. Needless to say it was downright awful. They were fairly certain the source was either tainted food (it began as a stomach illness) , birds, and NOT my reptiles. Salmonella sucks.... And most of the time, it has nothing to do with reptiles... CHICKENS are a huge culprit.

[Steveo]

I'd be interested to see how many reptiles actually carry salmonella as opposed to how many simply pass it from their food to a person externally.

[d_virginiana]

The salmonella issue is actually the reason that a lot of people used to justify making selling any turtles/tortoises in NC illegal. There was a case where two teens got a severe case from swimming in a pool with their pet turtle. They don't try to illegalize chicken because one person thought they'd eat it half-raw; what is the sense in illegalizing all turtles because a couple people do stupid things with them?

On a side note, I had pneumonia (from the flu) this fall. I happened to mention to the PA that I kept reptiles, and it took me like 10 minutes to convince the doctor that my lung issues were due to having the flu (which coincided with them beginning) instead of keeping reptiles (which I've done for over a decade).

[AngelOtter]

You can get salmonella from almost any pet, dogs, cats, mice, hamsters, and reptiles. Using it as a point for making reptiles illegal as pets is silly, are we going to ban dogs as well?
Any animal kept in unsanitary conditions can cause health issues in humans.

[Steveo]

The salmonella issue is actually the reason that a lot of people used to justify making selling any turtles/tortoises in NC illegal. There was a case where two teens got a severe case from swimming in a pool with their pet turtle. They don't try to illegalize chicken because one person thought they'd eat it half-raw; what is the sense in illegalizing all turtles because a couple people do stupid things with them?

NC isn't the only state with turtle laws. Here in CO you can't buy one under, I think, 4 inches. It has been proven that a not insignificant percentage of baby turtles in the pet trade carry salmonella. Still, I think it's a risk people should be allowed to take as long as they're informed about the issue. No pet is 100% safe, and people are still more likely to get salmonella from a bad restaurant than a pet turtle.

Tropical fish can carry tuberculosis, but nobody is banning them.