Replace the term “amphibian and reptile” with “Jersey Shore cast member” and this advisory from the Jefferson Health Dept. in North Jersey is still accurate.

Contact with amphibians (such as frogs and toads) and reptiles (such as turtles, snakes, and lizards) can be a source of human salmonella infections.

• Small turtles, with a shell length of less than four inches, are a well-known source of human Salmonella infections, especially among young children. Because of this risk, the Food and Drug Administration has banned the sale of these turtles since 1975.

• Amphibians and reptiles can carry salmonella germs and still appear healthy and clean.

• To prevent contamination, keep amphibians and reptiles out of kitchens and other areas where food and drink is prepared, served, or consumed.

• Don't let children younger than 5 years of age, older adults, or people with weak immune systems handle or touch amphibians or reptiles.

• Don't let reptiles and amphibians roam free in your home.

Investigators say more than 60 reptiles were left without water and heat in an abandoned warehouse in the Upstate.

It's been more than three months since authorities made charges in the case, but the owner of the animals has still not been tracked down.

Nigel Platt says an alligator was laying in rotting food and his own filth when he found him.

Platt says, "I can only describe it as salmonella city, or it was a salmonella soup."

The tortoises, some of the non-venemous snakes, and the alligator can all be taken to schools and churches to educate kids, and all of the animals will stay at Safe Haven and Educational Adventures, a non-profit organization, where they will continue to receive care.

If the animals came from ‘salmonella city’ maybe taking them to a school isn’t the best idea.
 

ReptileChannel.com (another of my favorite reads) reports the Texas Department of State Health Services has proposed changes to the wording reptile retailers in Texas use on signs warning customers about salmonella. The deadline for the public to submit comments is Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010.

Current law requires all retail stores that sell reptiles to post warning signs and distribute written warnings about reptile-associated salmonellosis. The signs are to include recommendations for preventing the transmission of salmonella. The proposed changes, according to the department, allow for consistency with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.

If approved, the warning signs would have to include the following recommendations, at minimum.

• Persons should always wash their hands thoroughly with soap and running water after handling reptiles or reptile cages or after contact with reptile feces or the water from reptile containers or aquariums. Wash your hands before you touch your mouth.

• Persons at increased risk for infection or serious complications of salmonellosis, such as children younger than 5 years of age, the elderly, and persons whose immune systems have been weakened by pregnancy, disease (for example, cancer) or certain medical treatments (for example, chemotherapy) should avoid contact with reptiles and any items that have been in contact with reptiles.

• Reptiles should be kept out of households or facilities that include children younger than 5 years of age, the elderly, or persons whose immune systems have been weakened by pregnancy, disease (for example, cancer) or certain medical treatments (for example, chemotherapy). Families expecting a new child should remove any reptile from the home before the infant arrives.

• Reptiles should not be allowed to roam freely throughout the home or living area. Wash and disinfect surfaces that the reptile or its cage has contacted.

• Reptiles should be kept out of kitchens and other areas where food or drink is prepared or consumed. Kitchen sinks should not be used to bathe reptiles or to wash their dishes, cages or aquariums. If bathtubs are used for these purposes, they should be cleaned thoroughly and disinfected with bleach. Wear disposable gloves when washing the dishes, cages or aquariums.

The signs would also have to include a statement notifying customers that even though reptiles may not appear sick at the time of purchase, they may carry salmonella bacteria, which can make people sick.

The entire proposal is available at:

“I never thought that a mouse could have salmonella. It just never entered my mind.”

So says Steve Gilfillan, 51, a deputy sheriff in Council Bluffs, Iowa, who, according to the New York Times this morning, keeps “a couple hundred” garter snakes in several neat rows of roomy enclosures in his basement. The snakes, he said, are like part of the family, which leads to a certain familiarity.

“As far as precautions, I don’t know,” said Mr. Gilfillan, adding his three children helped feed and care for his pets. “Snakes got to eat and snakes got to poop and you got to clean it up. It’s just the nature of keeping them.”

More than 400 people, many of them snake owners or their children, in the United States and Britain, have been sickened by salmonella outbreaks, all traced to frozen mice sold over the Internet as food for exotic pets by a small Georgia company called MiceDirect.

The company announced this week a recall involving millions of frozen mice and said that it would begin irradiating future shipments to kill infectious bacteria.

MiceDirect also recalled frozen rats and baby chickens used as pet food by reptile fanciers, although those products had not been linked to the salmonella outbreaks.

Health officials said that owners of reptiles should be mindful that such pets, including snakes and turtles, often carry salmonella and have been the cause of outbreaks in the past. Rodents carry similar risks, whether kept as pets or used as food for other animals.

Snakes can become infected after eating tainted mice, although the snakes may show no signs of illness, said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, a veterinarian and epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Snake owners can become sick from handling the frozen or thawed mice, handling infected snakes or cleaning feces from an enclosure.

Mr. Gilfillan and many other snake owners thaw mice to serving temperature in warm water. Dr. Barton Behravesh said people should not use a microwave oven, because the bacteria could spread to other food.

She also said that mice and reptiles should be kept out of the kitchen and away from areas where food is served. Reptile cages should not be cleaned in the kitchen sink, she said, and mice should not be kept in a freezer with food for humans.

And she said that reptile owners should wash their hands thoroughly after handling their pets or the rodents the pets eat.

The first salmonella outbreak linked to MiceDirect began in Great Britain in August 2008. Since then, more than 400 people have fallen ill there, about two-thirds of them have been children under 10, according to Chris Lane, a senior epidemiologist of the Health Protection Agency’s Center for Infections in London. Although the shipments of tainted mice were halted last year, people continue to get sick there, Mr. Lane said.

The first case in the United States appeared in January 2010, according Dr. Barton Behravesh. The C.D.C. has identified more than 30 cases in 17 states with the same strain as the British outbreak. She said the cases were not concentrated in one region but spread across the country. Half the victims were under 12.
Accounts from both sides of the Atlantic suggest that American authorities were slow to react to indications of a problem.

British investigators looking into the outbreak found that many of the victims came from families where snakes were kept as pets. They eventually began looking at the frozen mice fed to the snakes and found shipments from MiceDirect that contained the same strain of salmonella as that isolated from the victims.

British officials contacted MiceDirect, Mr. Lane said, and the company promised to act to prevent further contamination.

On July 21, 2010, the F.D.A. told the company that tests of its products and plant had found salmonella. Two days later, the agency said, MiceDirect agreed to a recall.

But the recall effort has been haphazard. The company’s recall notice was not prominently posted on its Web site until Thursday. And neither the company’s site nor the F.D.A.’s site gave clear instructions on what to do with mice that customers still had.