By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,SalmonellaA playground in New South Wales, Australia, has been closed because its sandpit was linked to salmonellosis in two children. Sandboxes are a potential source of a few different infectious diseases since they can be used as litterboxes by animals such as cats, raccoons, and apparently, bandicoots. In the Australian incident, two kids were diagnosed… 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 SalmonellaThe backyard poultry debate continues in many areas. It raised is head again in Guelph recently, with more city government debate about how far you have to keep your backyard chickens from your neighbours. There are a number of issues to consider, like potential for spread of zoonotic bacteria (e.g. Salmonella), avian flu, noise, smell… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,SalmonellaThe latest edition of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery contains an American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) position statement entitled “Impact of lifestyle choice on the companion cat: indoor vs outdoor”. (The document is actually an update of the previous 2007 position statement “Confinement of Owned Indoor Cats“.) It’s an interesting position statement that… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Reptiles,SalmonellaThe CDC has updated information on the ongoing (if not ever-present) salmonellosis outbreaks linked to pet turtles. At last count, there were 133 illnesses (although it’s likely that this represents a fraction of the people that actually got sick), with 38 of those requiring hospitalization. Forty-one percent (41%) were kids under the age of five, reflecting… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Reptiles,SalmonellaIn what shouldn’t come as a surprise, I guess, another pet turtle-associated multistate outbreak of Salmonella infection in people has been identified in the US. Despite the fact that the sale of small (<4 inch shell length) turtles has been banned in the US for decades, the law is widely ignored, and kids get sick… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,SalmonellaAccording to an alert from the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia: The BC Centre for Disease Control is collaborating with BC health authorities, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Health Canada to investigate an outbreak of Salmonella infections in British Columbia likely related to raw pet food. Raw pet food is food served… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,SalmonellaA reasonable question, expanding on the recent discussion about urban chickens and disease risks, is: why don’t we know how often people get sick from urban chickens? To answer the question, we need to think about how diseases are diagnosed and reported. Let’s say I decide to raise some chickens in my backyard. (Very hypothetical since… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Birds,SalmonellaUrban chickens continue to be in the news, with debate about instituting (or enforcing) bylaws banning or restricting the raising of chickens in backyards running next to articles on how to raise your own backyard flock. People have various concerns, including: Noise Attracting wildlife, including predators such as coyotes Smell Infectious diseases Animal welfare But,… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in MRSA/MRSP,Parasites,Salmonella,ToxoplasmosisPresentations from the 2015 Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ) Symposium are now on YouTube on the Worms & Germs Blog channel. There is a wide range of talks, including topics such as West Nile virus, Lyme disease, salmonellosis, MRSA, Toxoplasma and various other zoonotic diseases.… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in SalmonellaNDM-1 (New Delhi metalloproteinase 1) is a little bacterial gene that’s attracted a lot of attention (and controversy, due to its name). NDM-1 can be picked up by certain types of bacteria, making them resistant to a whole lot of antibiotics. Some bacteria that carry NDM-1 are resistant to virtually every available antibiotic, which raises… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in SalmonellaRecently, Kings of Leon canceled an outdoor concert after a pigeon (with very good aim, apparently) in the rafters above the stage managed to poop on band members, including one shot that hit the face of the band’s bassist. Besides, the "ick-factor," what are the concerns? Various studies have found potentially nasty microorganisms in pigeon… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in SalmonellaNature’s Variety has expanded their recall based on more concerns about Salmonella contamination of their products. In a lot of ways, this makes no sense to me since you have to assume that raw meat is contaminated with Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and various other pathogens. That’s been clearly shown in studies of raw meat… Continue Reading
By Maureen Anderson on Posted in SalmonellaA study by Erin Leonard of the University of Guelph and others, that has just been published in the journal Zoonoses and Public Health, once again points to the increased risk of Salmonella shedding associated with feeding raw diets to dogs. The study looked at 138 dogs from 84 households in Ontario. One-quarter of households… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,SalmonellaAs we approach the holidays, a lot of people are going to eat and/or drink too much, and suffer the consequences. The same can happen with dogs, and sometimes both the dog and their owner pay the price. Dogs get into things they shouldn’t all the time… too much food, garbage, dead critters and various… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,SalmonellaMy daughter’s kindergarten class is having a gingerbread cookie decorating event tomorrow. They’re supposed to bring a guest (in Amy’s case, me) and some items (e.g. candy sprinkles, gummies) to put on the cookies. I was surprised (but impressed) to see a statement asking people to avoid bringing items from bulk bins because of the potential… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,SalmonellaThe CDC is investigating an apparent multistate outbreak of salmonellosis associated with contact with frogs. As of December 7, 48 infected people had been identified from 25 states – a pretty remarkable distribution. People got sick between June 24 and November 14, 2009. As is normal for Salmonella outbreaks linked to animals, young children have been… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Reptiles,SalmonellaMy oldest daughter’s latest favourite TV show is Cake Boss, a TLC show about life in a bakery (don’t ask why… I guess it’s better than John and Kate Plus 8). On a recent episode, they were making a cake for a circus sideshow and one of the performers appeared in the bakery’s kitchen with a… Continue Reading
By Maureen Anderson on Posted in Birds,Dogs,Miscellaneous,Reptiles,SalmonellaI heard this on the radio yesterday morning, I kid you not: Butterball has a "Turkey Talk" toll-free helpline, which naturally gets busy around turkey holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Like many helplines, they get stories of every kind, and this year apparently one person called in and asked if it was alright that she… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Reptiles,SalmonellaThree Louisville, Kentucky children and their father recently contracted Salmonella from two lizards (green anoles) that the kids brought home from school. Two weeks after the lizards were brought home, the youngest child got sick. Then the other kids and the father got sick. This outbreak highlights numerous problems: Schools are not pet stores: Why… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Reptiles,SalmonellaYou’d think, after countless outbreak of salmonellosis associated with pet turtles, that people would learn and things would start to improve. I guess not. A paper published this week in Pediatrics (Harris et al) described a large outbreak of Salmonella Java associated with pet turtles. Between May 2007 and January 2008, 107 infections were identified. The… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,SalmonellaThe last time I visited the Aberfoyle (Ontario) Fall Fair, the petting zoo was so bad that I ended up writing to the fair organizers and the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit. (Neither group replied). It was pretty bad. Young poultry are inappropriate petting zoo animals because of the risk of transmission of bacteria like Salmonella, yet baby… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Other diseases,Parasites,SalmonellaThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released updated Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections Among HIV-exposed and HIV-infected Children. A small but still important part of this document involves recommendations for contact with animals. It’s a nice, balanced document that acknowledges the risk but doesn’t make unnecessarily restrictive recommendations. Among… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Pocket pets,SalmonellaIt seems like whenever a hit TV show or movie features an animal, there’s concern about the "101 Dalmatians effect," whereby there’s a mad rush to get the animal for a pet. When 101 Dalmatians was a hit movie, there was a huge spike in sales of this rather unusual breed – a breed which… Continue Reading
