Hazardous Hedgehogs
Monday, May 4th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Each year literally hundreds of millions exotic animals are imported into the USA and Europe. An exotic pet to be could be scratching out an existence in Asia one day, and find itself living in the lap of luxury in a household in perhaps Idaho the following week. The main problem is that many of these animals are not subject to any form of quarantine or only minimal health screening before they are allowed into the country and then into our homes. Unfortunately many owners have no idea that their new pet could pose a significant health risk to them and their families.
Zoonotic Diseases
Zoonotic diseases are those that can jump from animals to humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA says that zoonotic diseases account for around three-quarters of all emerging infectious diseases today.
Below are only some of the germs and diseases your hedgehog could infect you with.
In 2005 a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research study provided a list of zoonotic diseases that it had confirmed hedgehogs could carry, along with several potential infectious diseases. The confirmed diseases include Salmonella, Yersina, pseudotubercolosis, Mycobacterium marinum, Herpesvirus including human herpes simplex and Rabies. The potential diseases they can carry include Yersina pestis (also responsible for Bubonic plague) and hemorrhagic fever.
Salmonella
Salmonella is normally contracted from contaminated food. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 1 in 20 of all infections are passed to people by exotic Pets. For example they estimate that nearly eighty thousand Americans contract Salmonella from their pet reptiles every year.
In 1994 African Pygmy Hedgehogs were responsible for passing on a rare form of Salmonella (S. tilene), to a 10 month old girl who became the first ever confirmed case of this serotype in a human in the USA. The girl’s family were hedgehog breeders who kept a herd of about 80 hedgehogs. It should be noted that the little girl never touched the hedgehogs herself. A family member who had handled the hedgehogs passed the infection on to her. This serotype has since been found to be the cause of infection in many other cases.
Ringworm
Despite its name ringworm or Tinea is not a worm but is actually a fungal skin infection. One source of ringworm is known to be pet and wild hedgehogs. Over the past few months HedgehogsAsPets.com has been covering a story where three people were infected with ringworm by two hoglets bought from the same breeder.
The story becomes even more disconcerting when it transpires that the person in question had somehow evaded Britain’s stringent quarantine regulations and managed to import several hedgehogs directly into the UK from Germany. Hedgehogs imported into the UK would normally be required to spend 6 months in government approved facilities.
In this story the breeder claims that the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) put aside their normal procedures and permitted her to quarantine her new Pets in her house, (which incidentally was already a veritable zoo containing snakes, lizards, rats, other hedgehogs and sugar gliders). The breeder later learned that the German breeder’s herd was infected with ringworm, but not before she had spread the disease from the “German” hedgehogs to her breeding pair. The offspring of these latter were sold and went on to infect three people with ringworm.
Apart from the ringworm aspect of the case, it is also an example of what can go wrong if you buy your Pets from dodgy breeders. Over the past six months the breeder in question has promised to pay part of the new owners’ vet’s fees but they have yet to see a penny-.
Reducing the risk of infection
To reduce the risk of infection simply go to this site and follow the advice they give there: http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/browse_by_animal.htm.
Buying your pet from a reputable breeder rather than a pet store or pet distributor, should also provide you with more guarantees about where the animal came from.
Although the chances of catching an exotic disease from your pet are not very big, you must take into consideration that the risk does exist and take steps to minimise it. Follwing the advice on the CDC site will help you to reduce the risk of infection to a minimum.
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May 4th, 2009 at 9:50 am
[…] OSHA Veterinary added an interesting post today on Hazardous HedgehogsHere’s a small readingEach year literally hundreds of millions exotic animals are imported into the USA and Europe. An exotic pet to be could be scratching out an existence in Asia one day, and find itself living in the lap of luxury in a household in perhaps Idaho the following week. The main problem is that many of […] […]
May 14th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Thanks very much for your interesting post. Will be back in the future.