By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsThe recent (ongoing) Seoul virus outbreak associated with pet rats and recurrent Salmonella outbreaks linked to feeder rats have focused more attention on the national and international movement of rodents. Most people probably don’t realize the massive number of rodents that are shipped internationally, and we don’t really understand the risks. Anytime animals are moved… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,Cats,Dogs,Other animals,Pocket pets,ReptilesThis month’s edition of the Internal Medicine Journal contains an article entitled High rates of potentially infectious exposures between immunocompromised patients and their companion animals: an unmet need for education (Gurry et al. 2017). The study is fairly superficial and there’s nothing particularly surprising in the paper, with results similar to what has been reported in… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsIt’s not particularly surprising, I guess, but a few cases of Seoul virus infection have been identified in Ontario residents who breed or have contact with rats. Fortunately, like most infections with this type of hantavirus, disease was mild. Equally not surprising is that infected rats have been found in Ontario rat-breeding facilities. The Ministry… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsAnother day, another new zoonotic disease concern. Well, it’s not really that bad, but the list of new (or at least newly identified) zoonotic disease issues continues to expand at an impressive rate. One of the latest concerns is a cluster of Seoul virus infections linked to rats. At last report, 8 infections with Seoul… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket pets,SalmonellaWhen I talk about hospital visitation animals, I often use hedgehogs as an example of a novelty critter that we want to keep out of high risk situations. They’re interesting, but is there any advantage f seeing a hedgehog vs interacting with a properly trained visitation dog? Probably not. When you add in the greater… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,Pocket pets,ReptilesMy kids come home from school with lots of consent forms. Last week, one came home asking permission to enter Erin into the draw to see who gets to take home their Grade 3 class fish (Lord Bubbles). She didn’t win the draw, but it fit with a recent article in the Toronto Star entitled… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,Cats,Dogs,Horses,Other animals,Other diseases,Pocket pets,ReptilesPredicting the future is a dodgy proposition at the best of times. It’s particularly hard with infectious diseases, which tend not to behave as expected. Yet, it’s important to plan surveillance, education and response. One approach is to assess where certain types of problems are more likely to develop. That can help direct resources (time,… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,Cats,Dogs,Other animals,Pocket pets,ReptilesAnimals are not uncommonly found in daycares and other childcare settings. Sometimes, it’s good: animals can be entertaining, animal contact can have various benefits to children, and animals can be part of learning activities. Other times, it’s not: such as the presence of species at higher risk for shedding certain pathogens, poor management that increases… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,Pocket pets,ReptilesThe Public Health Agency of Canada, along with various partners (including the Worms&Germs team), has developed a set of informational postcards and a poster targeting pet owners and prospective pet owners. They emphasize five critical steps for safe pet ownership and provide a visual reminder using infographic icons: WASH (your hands) DISINFECT (contaminated surfaces and… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsAs reported on WKTR NewsChannel 3 in Virginia: “An employee at PetSmart [in Williamburg, Virginia] says she was bitten by a rat on display and is now worried she has rabies. She feels the store isn’t doing enough to help her find out if she has it. Victoria Verbeeck says she was working at the… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsAll animals pose some risk of infection to people, to one degree or another, but the risk varies a lot between animal species. I guess I’ve always considered guinea pigs to be relatively benig, with a few zoonotic disease concerns but with bites probably being the biggest risk. I still think that’s true, but a… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsA couple months ago, I wrote about a family suing PetsMart over a case of rat bite fever in a child. Now, a San Diego family is suing PetCo after their ten-year-old son died of the same infection. Rat bite fever is a bacterial infection caused by Streptobacillus moniliformis, and it is almost always associated… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsA Colorado family is suing PetsMart and a rat supplier after their son developed rat bite fever (RBF), following a bite from a newly acquired rat. Lawsuits seem to be increasingly common after zoonotic infections, which is probably more of a reflection of an increasing tendency for people to sue, not an increasing occurrence of… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsA local county newspaper had a front page headline about a zoning amendment that was approved to allow for a feeder rodent facility that will produce about 10 000 rodents a week (I know, apparently there aren’t a lot of big things happen around here). Co-incidentally, a couple days later, I received an alert and fact… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsThe latest Worms & Germs info sheet is about rat bite fever. It’s available by clicking here, and you can also find it along with all of our other info sheets on the Worms & Germs Resources – Pets page.… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsA recent report in the journal Infection (Chean et al. 2012) describes rat bite fever in a patient with AIDS. I’ve written about rat bite fever before, and it’s not really a surprising case report. Streptobacillus moniliformis, the bug that causes the disease, is found in the mouths of most rats (and in the mouths… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsI’ve written about lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) before, as an interesting but pretty uncommon rodent-associated disease. Human infections are mainly associated with handling rodents, although other routes of transmission, such as organ transplantation from an infected donor, have also been reported. Being a disease associated with rodents and considering how rodents are produced in North… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsWhen I give talks about pet therapy animals, I talk about appropriate and inappropriate animals. On one slide I have a picture of a hedgehog, and I use it as an example of an animal that sometimes makes its way into pet therapy programs, despite standard guidelines to the contrary. This is a species that raises… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsAs with most "pocket pets," guinea pigs don’t get a lot of attention in the scientific literature. As a result, we are limited in what we know about certain diseases in this species, and we tend to rely a lot on personal experience, small case studies and extrapolation from other species. It’s not that these… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsThe CDC is investigating CDC is investigating more cases of salmonellosis associated with feeder rodent contact, caused by the less-than-catchy-named Salmonella I 4,[5],12:i:-. This strain is the same one that was implicated in a large and prolonged outbreak in the US and UK in 2009-2010 which was also associated with frozen feeder rodents (rodents sold… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsGuinea pigs are relatively benign pets in terms of zoonotic diseases, but like any animal, they can carry some pathogens that are transmissible to people. This was highlighted in a poster presentation at the recent International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. The poster (Bartholomew et al) described a CDC investigation into an outbreak of… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsA case report in the Medical Journal of Australia (Pananicolas et al 2012) describes a case of rat bite fever and comes with the typical warning about this uncommon but concerning disease. Rat bite fever is an infection caused by the bacterium Streptobacillus moniliformis (the main cause in most countries) or Spirillum minus (the main… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsA Kitchener, Ontario family is dealing with a household outbreak of ringworm, likely contracted from a new pet guinea pig. Ringworm is a fungal infection cause by a few different types of fungi. Some ringworm fungi are able to infect both people and animals, and those can be spread in households from direct contact with… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket petsThe more we look, the more we find when it comes to MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). As people start looking for it in different animal species, it’s often found. We’ve found it in many species already, including dogs, cats, rabbits, pigs, walruses, dolphins and alpacas, so it’s not a big surprise to see a recent… Continue Reading
