RodentPro- Zoonotic disease warning

Originally Posted by reticguy76

So, are we dealing with virus or bacteria ??


Also, at a certain temperature, micro-organisms are killed and halted in reproduction. Ice crystals forming will kill micro organisms

I'm pretty sure this is not 100% true.

Firstly, I have my health issues, but I have no immune system problems. And, IF it proves to be true they had this virus, I am even more disgusted with them than the the one time I purchased rodents from them. Things happen when breeding animals, I'm sure most here seem to agree. But a problem like this, if known, and distributed, its beyond reprehensible. If this is true, and they were aware it was even possible, personally, I hope they are prosecuted to the full extent of any law available to hang them.

O.k., Here's my bit to add to the story. I'm going to do my best to avoid anonymous quotes. From time to time, I buy rodents from a local rodent breeder, Mark, @ Tampa Bay Rodents, (I don't know his last name off hand).

http://tampabayrodents.com/

I go to his place, and pick the rodents up live, or he euthanizes them while I'm there. A little over a month ago when I was there, he said he had been working on selling off his colony, equipment & possibly his business name (i can't remember positively), to pursue other business interests, but in the meantime, while he was still maintaining his colony, he had been wiped clean consistently, because he had picked up a number of large accounts, due to the fact that RP had called most of their large accounts and told them they wouldn't be able to provide them product for awhile. We speculated salmonella, due to the mice direct problems, and he seemed to know a bit about that, because supposedly they use the irradiation plant in Mulberry, Florida, which isn't far from his place. If you look at his site, it was updated on 6/18, which I believe was when he added the disclaimer about not accepting new clients, which was 6 weeks ago.

The reason I bring this up, is because it seems RP is being choosey about who to deny rodents to. My first thought then was either 1. Larger clients because they had a limited supply due to whatever the problem was. 2. Larger clients because they were more worried about sending worse product than normal to their big money guys. 3. Larger clients because maybe they were shutting down, and were using smaller clients to deplete whatever they had left.

But after reading all this today, another thought occurred to me. I don't know what type of facilities the Kentucky Reptile Zoo has, but maybe they avoided sending product to anyplace they thought may have the ability to run tests, or may have the rodents tested by any outside lab. I obviously don't know all of the places rodentpro cut off, so this is all more speculation. But it really reeks of them playing CYA, and screw anyone we can to get some money out of this.

And if possible, I'd appreciate it if he didn't get bombarded with phone calls. I'd rather not be responsible for him having to shut his phone off tomorrow, lol. I doubt he knows much more about RP itself, nor would he want to name his clients to random callers.

He is obviously a competing business, albeit smaller, but he had always been straight with me in the past. Just an FYI.

I would like solid proof as well, but for now.... I think I'll find an alternate supplier.

Originally Posted by Wilomn

I'm pretty sure this is not 100% true.

I would think a more accurate statement would be that at certain temperatures, SOME micro-organisms are killed. "Micro-organisms" is a pretty broad category of life. Salmonella would be considered a micro-organism, and it certainly isn't killed by normal freezing.

Wes, you are correct. Freezing at a certain temp does not kill all microbes, but does kill some and puts most others in a dormant state.

Also, this comes to mind, I mean look at what unbelievable stuff goes when a school is suspected of measles or something. Its a complete lock down and nobody goes back till all kids and staff are cleared. This a potential nation wide issue, you don't thing they would shut down rodentpro and all buyersvin the last couple months or so? ?

Originally Posted by reticguy76

Wes, you are correct. Freezing at a certain temp does not kill all microbes, but does kill some and puts most others in a dormant state.

Also, this comes to mind, I mean look at what unbelievable stuff goes when a school is suspected of measles or something. Its a complete lock down and nobody goes back till all kids and staff are cleared. This a potential nation wide issue, you don't thing they would shut down rodentpro and all buyersvin the last couple months or so? ?

No. I honestly don't. They were given a chance to rebuild their breeders. Something was bad enough that they had to replace all adults. That something must have been pretty bad. It's one thing to have mico or something in your rodents, it's another beast entirely when it's this serious. This really could, or still might, kill someone.

When you're young and healthy you look at this like what's the big deal. When it's your son or daughter or you yourself who could be killed by this lack of information it takes on a whole new light. I had chemo and a stemcell transplant last year. I'd be PISSED if I was a customer of theirs. My family would be sad if I were customer and either got sick or died. They had employees getting sick. Who knows who those sick employees spread it to. This feels like a cover your butt thing to me, sort of like the big banks taking care of each while totally bending over the little guys that make up the bulk of their business.

Originally Posted by scaledverts

Here is a bit of information that will be of interest to people that have ordered in the last few weeks or so.

Taken from their FAQs page http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_faqs.asp



I'm not sure how much frozen stock they keep in inventory, so if their colony is currently clean (which I assume it is) current orders are likely fine.

I should also note that until last week there was no availability of large mice which may indicate that they were building their colonies again and not selling off adults. Just a thought.

NOW: All of this does NOT mean that I would have appreciated the information being made available to me/everyone when ordering rodents.

Not all of their frozen stock is theirs. When they run low they outsource to fill orders, and fresh frozen rodents dont get freezer burnt, and or missing limbs in that short time they "harvested" them.

I breed my own for a long time now, and ive never had a single mouse or rat, no matter the size loose a limb.

Originally Posted by reticguy76

Wes, you are correct. Freezing at a certain temp does not kill all microbes, but does kill some and puts most others in a dormant state.

Also, this comes to mind, I mean look at what unbelievable stuff goes when a school is suspected of measles or something. Its a complete lock down and nobody goes back till all kids and staff are cleared. This a potential nation wide issue, you don't thing they would shut down rodentpro and all buyersvin the last couple months or so? ?

IF the cdc is investigating this, probably. You have to be approved/licensed by the usda to breed rodents commercially I believe. Mark I mentioned above has told me stories about usda inspectors he's had. I'm not aware of the licensing requirements, but one would think a cdc investigation, pending the outcome, would make that more difficult, and probably more costly. Add in the negative reviews and press if this turns out to be true, I doubt it would be worth their effort and expense to get back up and running. This will be all over any forum that it isn't already within days.

And another thought. If you need rodents, I would get them soon. The amount of feeders supplied by RP will not easily be replaced, and I'd bet prices will go up soon from most other frozen suppliers.

Animal food is not USDA regulated.

Current price reflects post outbreak adjustments by Rodent Pro, there has been no major increase in cost to produce mice.

State or federal laws, regulations, or permits if put into place for the feeder industry will effect cost; how much depends greatly on how restrictive they are.

Better breeders will take steps to prevent this from effecting their rodents, which equals their livelyhood. Testing is prohibitively expensive, PCR tests for a number of common illnesses found in a single rodent can cost upwards of $300. Prevention is certainly the key.

If you took the time to find my facebook post that references this topic you can see that I knew about this issue much earlier, initially I somewhat doubted it all as some of you are now. Then I got on the phone, my first verification came from Doug Metcalf.

I think the facts are contained in personal communications not texts or emails or clean easy to link to web pages. What is found in those places though is a total lack of acknowledgment of the existance of this issue by any company be it Rodent Pro or Mouse House.

As for the time frame, Rodent Pro and Mouse House both were placed under quarantine, they did so in reaction to this event not proactivly on a scheduld. There may never be a solid start time to this event.

Maurice Pudlo

wow. fairly disturbing. I breed my own asf rat but i still order my frozen chicks and mice from another vendor which thank god i trust. But someone like rodent pro needs to step up and put up a warning. SOMETHING. Not good....not good.