My 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
Mapping Zoonotic Disease Emergence Risk
Predicting 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,
Animals in Child Care Facilities: New Guidance
Animals 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
Public Health Agency of Canada: Healthy Pets, Healthy People
The 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
PetSmart employee worried about rabies after rat bite
As 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
Hazardous guinea pigs?
All 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
Rat bite fever…who’s to blame?
A 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
Rat bite fever…who’s liable?
A 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
Feeder rodent Salmonella alert, Ontario
A 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
Rat bite fever info sheet
The 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.