Classroom pets...Things to consider
Having pets in school classrooms is a somewhat controversial subject. For every good point that's raised (e.g. promoting empathy, entertainment, learning about animals and their care) there are bad points (e.g. poor environment for the pet, rough handing, disorganized or absent medical care, disease transmission, fear, allergies, distraction). Some organizations have developed detailed guidelines for using animals in classrooms, but animals are often in classrooms with little consideration of the issues. Little is known about what happens with these pets. We tried to do a survey of teachers from some school boards a few years ago and only ended up getting about two responses out of hundreds of eligible teacher participants (the overall lack of support from board administration didn't really help get the survey out and get teachers interested either, but that's another story). So, we really don't have a good idea of the types of animal contact that occur in classrooms or the problems that result, but we know from various case reports that complications like infections can and do occur.
PetSmart and the Pet Care Trust have a "Pets in the Classroom" program where kindergarten to grade six teachers can get support for having a pet in the classroom. Their release outlines a few of their perceived benefits, and some of the complexities of having pets in classrooms. Their points are in italics, with some comments from me.
Hamsters make fun classroom pets because they are active and teach children the importance of schedules and responsibilities.
- Yes and no. They can be entertaining, but they can also be distracting. You have to differentiate something that's a novelty from something that is being used as part of the educational curriculum. Hamsters can be injured with rough handling by young children and close supervision is required. They may also bite when handled, especially when handled by young kids who don't know what they are doing. Plans to take care of the hamster over holidays and the summer are needed, and are often not considered in advance. The disease risks of hamsters are relatively low, but not non-existent. Having nocturnal animals in a busy daytime setting is also questionable ethically.
Guinea Pigs are easily handled and encourage children to follow a regimented routine.
- They are similar to hamsters in their benefits and risk, but their larger size makes them more robust and less prone to handling injury. They are probably one of the better mammals to have in a classroom, but still require good organization, planning and practices.
Fish are a great way to illustrate basic chemistry and biology principles while students follow regularly scheduled water changes.
- Fish can be great classroom animals. There are ways to incorporate them into the curriculum, from behaviour to animal care to feeding to water quality and environmental concerns. They need some care, with regular feeding and proper water maintenance, but with basic supervision and planning, the risks to the animals and people are minimal and they can be of benefit educationally.
Bearded Dragons depend on their environment for heating and cooling and are a great way to teach about geography and the environment.
- Bearded dragons (see image) are great little reptiles with a lot of personality. However, they have specific requirements for care and feeding, something that cannot be easily fulfilled in a lot of classrooms. Also, being reptiles, they are high risk for Salmonella shedding. In a low risk household, it's not a big deal with basic hygiene practices. However, in a classroom with lots of kids, perhaps limited enforcement of hygiene, and kids eating in the area where the reptile is, the risks get higher. General guidelines are that children less than five years of age and people with compromised immune systems should not have contact with reptiles. This means they should not be in kindergarten classrooms or rooms where such students may spend time. More complicated is the issue of immunocompromised individuals. I'm not convinced that teachers always know when one of their students is immunocompromised, and what happens if there's an established pet and a student becomes immunocompromised? Bottom line: Reptiles shouldn't be in classrooms.
Leopard Geckos are docile in nature and teach children about different nocturnal behaviors.
- These are interesting little critters, but not good classroom pets, like other reptiles, for the reasons outlined above. Nocturnal pets may not be great for classrooms either since the daytime activity and disruption may be harmful to them in the long term.
Certain pets can be good additions to certain classrooms, with some logical planning and common sense, but poor planning and bad animal choices can be harmful to students and animals. School boards should be proactive and develop or adopt sound protocols for classroom pets.
Spring is here, so are chicks in classrooms
A sure sign of spring is the proliferation of classrooms hatching out chicken or duck eggs. While chicks may be cute and entertaining, they are also high-risk sources of Salmonella and some other infectious microorganisms. Numerous Salmonella outbreaks have been linked to contact with hatchling chicks, and care must be taken if teachers are considering having chicks in classrooms.
Things to consider:
- Who will be in contact with the chicks? Children under 5 years of age, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems should not have contact with young chicks. This rules out having chicks in preschool and some kindergarten classes, however not everyone follows those standard recommendations. It's also very hard to know whether there may be immunocompromised kids in the classroom. Unless a teacher/school is sure that there are no high-risk children present, they shouldn't have high risk animals.
- Where will the chicks be hatched and raised? Is it in a contained area?
- Is the chick area easily and always supervised to ensure that rules are followed? This is important for both children and chicks, since chicks can easily be injured or killed through improper handling.
- Are protocols in place regarding safe handling and hygiene?
- Are the chicks going to be in an area where students eat?
- Are parents going to be notified in advance?
- Are there plans for sending the birds to an appropriate home when they're done in the classroom?
- Are the chicks there for a true educational purpose, or just as a novelty?
Hatching chicks can be done relatively safely in appropriate classrooms, with older children, no high-risk individuals, easy access to hand hygiene stations, appropriate protocols and proper supervision. The problem is, these aren't always (or even often) present, and inadequate thought often goes into bringing chicks into classrooms.
Classroom squirrel
A Rosedale, California high school has welcomed a new pet into the classroom: a squirrel. CJ Addington, a physics teacher, caught a baby squirrel that some students spotted outside the school.
I have some (just a few) issues with this:
- In most areas, catching and keeping wildlife is illegal, for good reason.
- A baby squirrel wandering around outside is not necessarily an orphan that needs saving. There's a good chance this squirrel will die now that it's been taken from its habitat.
- I doubt the teacher has a wildlife rehab license and knows how to take care of the squirrel.
- The teacher wants to "take care of it until it's a full grown squirrel and ready to go back in its habitat." Releasing an animal that has been hand-raised in captivity back into the wild is likely going to result in a quick death, and that's completely unethical.
- I have a hard time figuring out how to incorporate a pet squirrel into a physics curriculum.
- The teacher says "The administration did not have any disputes about having the squirrel." The administration, therefore, is clueless about a host of issues, including capture and care of wildlife and CDC recommendations against having wild animals in situations like this.
- Mr. Addington also said, "It is too young of a squirrel to be carrying anything, so I didn't have to vaccinate it or anything like that." Uh...no. This squirrel could be carrying a wide range of pathogens, including rabies. The number of people that have been exposed to rabies through handling baby wildlife is astounding.
- "It's cool to have a squirrel that freaks out at random points of class" said one student. That certainly sounds like a healthy, stress-free animal that is thriving in its environment (note the sarcasm here). Also, it shows how it's a potential classroom disruption.
Pets can be useful additions to classrooms in specific and well-controlled situations. Things to consider when deciding if an animal is reasonable to have in a classroom include:
- Are there any school rules that cover this?
- Are there any students that are at increased risk of infection because they have compromised immune systems? (Part 2 of that question is "If no, are you SURE that you would know if there was an immunocompromised child in the class?)
- Are there any students who are afraid of the animal? (Part 2: are you sure? applies here too).
- Are there any students who might be allergic to the animal? (Part 2 again...)
- Is there an educational value, or is it just a novelty?
- Will children eat in the same room as the animal?
- Can the animal be kept safely and in a humane manner?
- Who will care for the animal on weekends and holidays?
- What happens if the animal gets sick?
- Will protocols be established before the animal arrives, covering the above plus other issues, such as who will have access to the animal, how it will be handled, what type of hygiene practices will be used, etc?
The list goes on. Clearly, having an animal in a classroom is something that requires a lot of thought, time and work. It is possible for animals to be valuable teaching tools in a classroom, as part of the curriculum, as well as providing entertainment and increased empathy towards other species. It's also possible for animals to expose people to serious infectious diseases, to be distracting and to disturb the education of individual students or whole classes.
Wildlife should never be classroom pets.
Family Salmonella outbreak from school reptile
Three 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 is an exotic (and difficult to care for) pet that is a known Salmonella vector being sent home with students? Apparently, the school sent home a standard letter they use when students take home pets. (I assume sending animals home must be a very common event if the school has a standard form for it.) The letter provides "caretaking tips" but apparently mentions nothing about Salmonella and reptiles. The school has now modified the letter to include a "reminder to parents that good hygiene is imperative when dealing with any kind of living organism as a pet, so they need to make sure their kids wash their hands well after handling them or cleaning them out." That's better, but if they are sending home reptiles, they need a clear statement about the risk of Salmonella exposure. They need to be direct and highlight the greater risk associated with reptiles.
Lack of education before getting a pet: Too many pets die and too many people get sick because people don't take the responsible step of finding out about the animal before they adopt it as a pet. This is particularly true with exotic pets, and death of the pet is a common outcome. It doesn't take a lot of effort to find out basic information about reptile care, and information about the risk of salmonellosis should be easy to find.
Poor knowledge (or a poor attempt at damage control) by the school: The teacher "noted that other common pets, such as dogs, can also carry salmonella. Like lizards, they're perfectly safe as long as you practice proper handwashing when you handle them." Except for the fact that 0-1% of healthy dogs carry Salmonella while very high percentages of reptiles do, that tens of thousands of cases of reptile-associated salmonellosis occur every year, that contact with reptiles is a major risk factor for salmonellosis, and that the CDC (among other groups) recommends that children less than five years of age and other high-risk groups not have contact with reptiles. This type of statement is misleading. It's unfortunately either an indication of ignorance of the issues or an attempt to cover their butts and not take their share of the responsibility for what happened. Certain reptiles can be good pets in certain situations, but are clearly inappropriate in others.
The "it's never happened before so it must be safe" fallacy: The school's disappointing response was that they've been using lizards in classrooms for years and no one has gotten sick. Well, their luck just ran out. Just because I could drive around without a seatbelt and not get hurt doesn't mean not using a seatbelt is a perfectly safe plan. Risky behaviours tend to catch up with you eventually.
The "it didn't happen here so it's not our fault" excuse: School officials said teachers are well-trained on the proper way to prevent students from getting Salmonella, but that's pretty debatable since three kids got sick because of their actions (i.e. sending the reptiles to the children's home). The infections may not have originated in the school but the school was still the source of the problem.
Poor hygiene associated with reptile contact: The father admitted that they didn't wash their hands regularly after handling the lizards.
There's little excuse for sending reptiles home with kids. Reptiles require specialized care and commitment, and many (many!) die each year from inappropriate care. The last thing we need is to make it easier for people to obtain them without much forethought. Reptile-associated salmonellosis is a serious problem, especially in kids. Serious, including fatal, infections can occur. Schools need to realize the liability they might assume by sending these animals into households, especially with inadequate scrutiny and education. Reptiles should not be kept in households with kids less than five years of age, pregnant women, elderly individuals or immunocompromised individuals. I doubt they asked whether any such people lived in the household before sending the reptiles home.
Service animal stink in Yonkers
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A Yonkers, New York school has barred a service dog from a school. On the surface, that sounds like a problem and an invitation for a lawsuit (particularly in the US considering the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)), but when you hear the details is seems like an entirely logical response.
The "service dog" is a four-month-old puppy that the child, an 8-year-old boy with juvenile diabetes, uses to monitor his blood glucose levels. The boy's family has battled the school board for a year and the the state Division of Human Rights has declared this year that the Spataros had grounds to sue the district over the issue. Of to court they go...
Service animals need to have full access to do their jobs. The question comes down to is it really a proper service animal? That's pretty subjective and the weakness of the ADA complicates things. In this case, it certainly seems that this is not truly a proper service dog.
- This dog is four months old. That's too young to be a highly trained service animal. It's also too young to properly assess its temperament, and temperament testing is very important for animals with such open access.
- School board officials claim the dog has not been properly trained and is "not a service dog under the existing service animals standards and guidelines." A minimum of 120 hours of training over 6 months or more is recommended by the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners, something that obviously has not happened with this dog. The person that trained the dog says that the IAADP's guidelines are just suggestions rather than rules that have to be followed. That's true, but they are suggestions by a recognized and informed group, and I'd put their opinions well above someone who thinks a four-month-old puppy can be a proper service animal.
- The school board has also offered to provide a person to assist the child in the classroom, so that the child can attend school without any barriers.
This isn't going to end well. It's going to cost the family and the school board (i.e. the general public) lots of money in lawyer fees. It's going to draw unnecessary attention to this boy and his disease at school.
If someone needs a service animal, they need to get a real service animal. Otherwise, it's just a pet coming along for the ride. There needs to be better regulation of service animals. In the US, the ADA needs to be reviewed so that patients' rights are protected but also so that the public is protected from inappropriate animals. Bad service animals hurt the credibility of real service animals and the people they serve.
Image from http://www.lohud.com.
Service dogs in classrooms
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A friend recently asked me about having service dogs in classrooms. Her sister, who is a learning resources teacher, told her about an autistic child who will be attending her school with a dog. The dog prevents the child from bolting and helps reduce anxiety. She thought this was an interesting topic because of the various pros and cons that need to be considered, and I certainly agree. It may seem simple at first glance, but when you think about it, it's a rather complex situation.
Contact with animals always comes with some risk. We can never eliminate the risk entirely. What we need to do is determine how to maximize the benefits and minimize the concerns, and ultimately decide whether the benefits are worth the risks.
In this situation:
Potential concerns/risks (to the child and/or those around him/her):
- Zoonotic disease transmission
- Bites/scratches
- Allergies
- Anxiety in children/adults who are fearful of dogs
- Management issues (e.g. who's responsible for making sure the dog gets walked)
- Classroom disruption (e.g. barking, whining, wandering)
Benefits:
- Letting the child attend and get the most out of school
That's a pretty big benefit, and it's clear this is a good situation as long as the risks are controllable.
What should be done in a situation like this?
- The true need for the dog has to be assessed. Is it really beneficial? Presumably yes, but the question has to be part of the assessment. There should be a formal evaluation/way to determine that "yes, this animal is needed so we should do everything we can to facilitate it." It doesn't need to be a restrictive process at all, but it should be in place. (The situation in the US with the ADA complicates this - pretty much anyone can say they have a service animal and the amount of scrutiny that can be applied is minimal. More discussion about this can be found in a previous post, just click here).
- The dog should, ideally, come from a recognized service dog organization. This ensures that the dog/person pair is properly evaluated and the dog is trained. If this is not possible, then the next best thing is for the pair to be involved with a service organization so they get similar (but after-the-fact) training. Getting a formally trained dog may be difficult under some conditions because, while some service dog types (e.g. guide dogs for the blind) are well established, formal programs to provide trained dogs for many other conditions are uncommon or or non-existent.
- The school board should be notified as early as possible. This gives them the chance to make any necessary arrangements.
- Parents of other children in the classroom should be notified. They don't need to be told why the dog is needed (privacy of the student bringing the dog is an important issue), but they should be told a service dog will be in the class and what the school will do to reduce any potential problems. If there are any concerns (e.g. serious allergies, fear of dogs) they should be allowed to move their children to another class without any hassles. Ideally this should be done before the school year starts to reduce any possible stigma of someone being moved because of the dog.
- The teacher should be educated about risks and benefits of therapy dogs. The teacher is a critical link as he/she will oversee routine management of the animal. The teacher needs to understand the benefits of service animals in order to accept the animal in the class. The teacher also needs to understand the potential problems so he/she takes his/her role in management of the situation seriously.
- General hygiene practices (e.g. hand washing after touching the dog) should be emphasized and enforced.
- Any "incidents" must be recorded and reported. Furthermore, follow up to figure out what happened, why and how it can be prevented is crucial. Any aggressive or other disruptive behaviour by the dog cannot be tolerated and requires an immediate review. A proper service dog should not pose any significant behavioural risks (e.g. biting, barking during class, wandering around). The less the scrutiny of the dog at the start, and the less the specific training, the greater the likelihood of such problems occuring.
- The dog's veterinarian should know it's a service animal. The dog must be examined by a vet at least yearly, and at a minimum it must be properly vaccinated against rabies. If the dog becomes sick, it must be taken to a vet promptly. If the vet identifies a disease that might be transmissible to people, the dog must not go to school until the risk period for transmission has passed.
- A plan must be established for walking the dog and handling feces. The dog should not be taken to defecate on the playground. It should have a separate grassed area in which to defecate that is away from where children play. Feces must be promptly removed and disposed of, and hands washed.
Service animals can be a contentious and emotional topic. They certainly do provide tremendous benefits to some people, so we need to do what we can to facilitate them. At the same time, we need to properly manage the situation to reduce risks to others. Usually, a thorough proactive review of risks and benefits, and a detailed discussion of what will be done, can greatly reduce any concerns and maximize the benefits. They key is actually thinking about these issues and doing something about them before there is a problem.
Stupid things done with bats, part II
Last fall, I wrote about rabies exposure in a Montana school. The full story has just been published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. The brief version of the story is:
- Parent finds a dead bat carried in by the family cat and, for reasons known only to him/her, puts it in a jar.
- The next day, the parent takes the bat to a school, takes it out of the jar, and presents it to 8 classrooms full of children. Many students, teachers and staff touch the bat.
- The school nurse finds out later that day (I assume this finding is accompanied by a large spike in the nurse's blood pressure), and advises the parent to submit the bat for rabies testing.
- The bat tests positive and an investigation is started.
- 107 students and staff are interviewed and all are identified as requiring rabies post-exposure treatment. One student reported that their finger may have been pricked while sticking it in the bat's mouth, which would be a high risk exposure.
- 74 people ended up being treated. There's no word as to why some declined.
This was clearly a completely avoidable situation that resulted in potential widespread exposure to rabies, a large investigation, stress for people and their families, as well as the expense and pain of multiple injections for many individuals - all because one well-meaning but poorly-informed parent brought a dead wild animal to school, and because none of the teachers or staff that witnessed this thought to act.
The school's insurance policy covered the $75 000 in vaccine costs (plus an additional $29 000 for vaccine that was ordered but not used by people who declined vaccination).
- People need to be more informed about diseases such as rabies. This type of information is available on the Worms & Germs Resources page.
- Schools need to develop and enforce policies regarding visitors and pets. Approximately 1/3 of large scale rabies exposures occur in schools.
- Common sense needs to be a little more common.
Exotic animals in daycares... another bad idea
One more post about illogical and dangerous activities associated with animals and young children and I'll hopefully get off the subject for awhile. I came across this daycare's website today. Keep in mind (again) that the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children less than 5 years of age not have contact with reptiles, and that the Compendium of Measures to Prevent Disease Associated with Animals in Public Settings published by the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians states that wild or exotic animals may not be appropriate in school settings. The photo gallery from this particular daycare included some great pictures of things that you should NOT do with young children. Some of the more striking example are below:
1) Letting a large snake wrap its body around the neck of a young child.
2) Letting a young child kiss a snake.
3) Letting a child touch a turtle.
4) Letting a young child pet a pygmy hedgehog. (Like reptiles, hedgehogs very often carry infectious pathogens, including Salmonella.)
I wonder...
- whether anyone made sure these children immediately washed their hands after they touched the animals.
- how may kids but their hands in their mouths before they washed their hands. (Probably almost all of them, considering the "animal visit" probably went on for quite a while.)
- whether this activity took place in the same area where the children later ate lunch or a snack.
- whether the parents knew that this was going to happen.
I'm not against young children having contact with animals. I think pet contact can be very rewarding for young children. However, these individuals are at higher risk for infection and it is our responsibility to protect them. Putting them in high risk situations like these is inappropriate. Animal visitation in daycares is not necessarily a bad thing, if it involves animals that are a low risk species (e.g. dogs and cats), that are healthy, and that have been temperament tested (to show they are at low likelihood of biting). It is also important that parents provide consent for their children to participate, that good hygiene practices are used (and enforced), and that the people bringing in the animals know what they are doing.
Baby chicks in preschools
Just last week I blogged about concerns regarding young children handling baby chicks in classrooms. Baby chicks are high-risk animals because of the potential for transmission of Salmonella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children less than 5 years of age not have contact with baby chicks for this reason. Unfortunately, few people seem to know this (or at least pay attention to it). If I have a problem with baby chicks in kindergarten classrooms, you can imagine the conniption I have about chicks in preschools. These pictures illustrate my concerns in phenomenal fashion.
If you look closely at this first picture (right), you can see the plop of "chick poop" on this child's sweater (which he seems all too happy about). The picture is from a blog written by the child's mother - she gives absolutely no recognition that this is an infectious disease concern.
The second picture (left) is from a news article about a preschool. The preschool obviously has no clue about infectious disease risks because they allowed this c to put the chick on his head and were apparently proud enough of it to have the reporter take a picture.
And last but certainly not least, we have a great picture (below) of a child either kissing a chick or eating very undercooked poultry. Either way, it's a bad idea. This picture is from another parent's blog, who apparently thought it was cute.
Baby chicks should not be in preschools - ever. The novelty factor of having chicks in the facility does not supercede the infectious disease risks and recommendations from public health agencies.
Chicks in classrooms: Salmonella shouldn't be a sign of spring
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An annual "ritual" in some schools is hatching chicken eggs in the classroom. This can be a great educational experience for children as they learn about eggs and incubation, watch them hatch and see the baby chicks. It can also be a great source of infection for children if certain precautions are neglected. The picture on the right, from an article in the Ilkley Gazette, shows a good example of a bad idea. This four-year-old boy has a newly hatched chick on his shoulder. Why does this bother me?
- Chicks are a great source of potentially harmful bacteria, particularly Salmonella.
- You can't litter train a day-old chick. I wouldn't be surprised if it left a little biohazardous "present" on the child's shoulder.
- Outbreaks of salmonellosis in people associated with baby chicks have been reported.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends children under five years of age should not have contact with chicks.
If there are going to be chicks in a classroom:
- They should only be in classrooms with older students.
- Contact with chicks should be restricted and always supervised.
- Careful attention must be paid to handwashing. Everyone who handles chicks or comes in contact with their environment (e.g. box, cage, incubator) should immediately and thoroughly wash their hands.
- Chicks should never be allowed to roam free in the classroom.
- Chicks should never be handled during lunch or snack time.
- Immunocompromised children should not be present in the class.
It's common sense, but it's amazing how uncommon "common sense" seems to be sometimes.
Hatching chicks in classrooms
My oldest daughter is in Grade 2, and last year her class hatched chicken eggs in the classroom. As a parent, I was somewhat torn about the idea. My main concern was the risk of exposure to Salmonella. A recent article in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports described outbreaks of salmonellosis associated with contact with live poultry. Most cases were associated with handling baby chicks obtained from agricultural stores or by mail order. Infections from classroom and petting zoo-associated contacts were also reported.
Salmonella contamination of eggs and carriage by baby chicks is very common. The CDC recommends that children less than five years old do not have any contact with baby chicks, and that older individuals pay close attention to hygiene in order to prevent transmission of Salmonella. Being six years old, my daughter was just over this age cutoff (although there's nothing magical about going from five to six years old, so I'd still consider her at somewhat higher risk). So, as long as good infection control practices were used (e.g. hand hygiene), the risk to the children was probably quite low. Were the benefits of hatching eggs in the classroom worth the risk? I don't know, but she enjoyed the experience and did learn a few things along the way. Concerns about infectious diseases are often dismissed, which is a problem, but sometimes excessive concern gets in the way of life. There's rarely a clear answer as to what is acceptable and what is too risky, given the potential benefits.
- Eggs and chicks should not be kept in classrooms where children under five years old will be present, or if there are immunocompromised children in the class. It's unclear whether all teachers would know if they had a high-risk child in the class. Parents of immunocompromised children should make sure teachers know about their child's increased risk.
- It is prudent for teachers to send home a note to inform parents if eggs/chicks will be in the classroom, or if similar activities involving animals are undertaken.
- Eggs and chicks should be kept in a complete enclosure, in an area that is always supervised when children are around.
- Chicks should always be kept in their enclosure. They should never be taken to areas (e.g. a student's desk) where food might be consumed.
- Direct contact with eggs and chicks (and their environment) should be kept to a minimum.
- Hands should be thoroughly washed or an alcohol hand sanitizer used immediately after contact with eggs, chicks or their environment.
- Appropriate thought should go into the use of eggs and chicks in classrooms. They should be there for more than the "novelty factor". There should be a clear teaching plan associated with them so they provide the maximum educational value possible.
- Testing eggs and chicks for Salmonella isn't practical. A negative result cannot guarantee that Salmonella is not there. As well, there are other infectious diseases that are of concern. Consider all eggs and chicks Salmonella-positive and handle them appropriately.
Stupid things done with bats
I'm constantly amazed at what some people do with bats. Bats are a leading cause of human rabies exposure in North America. Despite extensive efforts to educate people about the importance of avoiding contact with bats, some people still either don't know or don't take these warnings seriously.
The latest bizarre example of stupid things done with bats occurred in Montana, where a parent brought a dead bat to a school and let young children (kindergarten and grade 5 students) touch it. Touching a bat in itself is a bad idea, let alone touching one that has died of unknown causes and encouraging kids to touch it. The teachers apparently had no objections to this activity. The parent who brought the bat had the students use an alcohol hand sanitizer after touching the creature, but it is still very irresponsible for someone to encourage children to touch a high-risk animal, regardless of what is done after. I'm sure the parents of the children didn't know beforehand, and certainly some were no doubt very upset when they found out about the incident (or livid would be a better description, if it was my kids that were involved). School officials did not find out about the dead bat until after its little visit, at which time the local and state public health authorities were contacted. The bat was tested and was positive for rabies.
Overall, the risk of rabies transmission is probably low in this case, but not zero. It has therefore been recommended that the 80 students that may have touched the bat be given post-exposure rabies shots, which may cost up to $800 per child!. Another ten children may have touched the bat at a soccer practice - for a dead bat, it sure covered a lot of ground!
- Never touch a bat, dead or alive. Obviously, if you shouldn't touch a bat, you shouldn't encourage kids to do so either!
- Unstructured and unapproved contact with animals in classrooms should be prevented. Animals can be good educational tools, but only if student and animal health and welfare are properly addressed.
More information on Rabies is available on the Worms & Germs Resources page.
Snakes, mice and Salmonella: a bad classroom combination
Reptiles are common pets, and the risk of transmission of Salmonella from reptiles is fairly well known. Most of the attention regarding Salmonella in these cases involves direct contact with reptiles, especially turtles. However, both direct and indirect contact with other reptiles also carry risk, as can contact with other animals. A recent report about a 2005/2006 outbreak of salmonellosis in 4 people from Minnesota highlights this:
- Three affected people were from the same junior high classroom, which contained pet snakes.
- Two of the people reported contact with the snakes, and one other student from the school did not handle the snakes but was often in the classroom, while the fourth infected student had a sibling in the class.
- The same Salmonella Typhimurium strain was found in the classroom snakes, various classroom surfaces and vacuum-packed rodents that were purchased over the internet and fed to the snakes.
- Presumably, the snakes became infected from the rodents, and the students became infected from handling the snakes, or from touching contaminated surfaces in the classroom (they reportedly had no contact with the rodents).
A broader US investigation identified 7 other people infected with the same Salmonella strain from handling vacuum-packed rodents. The outbreak was eventually traced back to the (unlicensed) rodent supply facility.
Pets can be educational and entertaining in classrooms, however some pets are better than others. Educational value, ability to properly (and humanely) care for the pet, and classroom safety need to be considered when determining what pet might be appropriate. Careful consideration of measures to reduce the risk of disease transmission is required. The teacher in this case reported that he did not know snakes could carry Salmonella, that he did not wash his hands after cleaning the cage, and that he did not tell students to wash their hands after touching the snake, so it is clear that there was inadequate consideration to these issues.
This case report also highlights the potential risks of reptile ownership in households. Reptiles are high risk for Salmonella, and not appropriate for all households. Good hygiene should be used when handling reptiles, their environment and their food. More information about reptiles can be found in the Turtles information sheet on the Worms & Germs Resources page.
Image: Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus) by Mike Wesemann
