Pet reptiles may cause human blood infection

From Veterinary Practice News........

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Human blood donors should be asked if they have pet reptiles at home and platelets should be routinely checked for contamination.
It also suggests that the Salmonella bacteria carried by reptiles cold contaminate blood from apperently healthy human donors.
The study tracked the case of two women who recieved the same batch of blood, donated by the owner of a boa constrictor.
The first woman, who was suffering stomach and intestinal bleeding before recieving platelets, subsequently died. The second woman recieved platelets as part ofher treatment for leukemia. She immediately fell ill but recovered.
The snake's owner gave blood regularly and felt well when he gave the blood in April. However he had fallen ill with diarrhea, cramps and fever two and a half weeks previously.
Bacteria later taken from the boa constrictor matched bacteria taken from its owner and the two women.
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Has anyone ever heard of this?
I know that you can get Salmonella from reptiles , but didn't know that it could do this after the fact.

TYIA,
Kim

Well....

You can get it from the food you feed your reptiles...and the reptiles can get it from the food you feed them. Rule of thumb...WASH YOUR HANDS!! If more people did this before and after handleing their animals then people would stop freaking out about it. (Besides I can get a lot worse things from the family dog but you dont see people flipping out about that.)

I agree with Tegan on the handwashing thing.
On the other hand I have first hand experience on collecting and processing donated blood (used to work for the Red Cross). It is
common practice (although not always done) to "UV" the blood.
Bacteria is killed by the flood of UV rays. Virus are another story
though. The donor in this case was not confirmed to have had the
same bacteria as the people who recieved the blood. This therefor cannot be directly traced back to the boa although it can be indirectly. The patients could have just as easily contracted the
bacteria from a nurse or doctor who owned a boa and didnt follow sanitary practices , ???
I wouldnt put much into the article.

God Bless!
Ben

Originally posted by Reptscue
Has anyone ever heard of this?
I know that you can get Salmonella from reptiles , but didn't know that it could do this after the fact.

TYIA,
Kim

News items re: this --
http://www.health24.co.za/news.asp?a...ontentID=18924
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2295687.stm

Des.

I was just doing some research from a paper, and it turns out that you can get salmonella from aquarium fish (and pretty much every other animal). It sucks in this case it came from a reptile, but why is this such a big deal? Salmonella infection is a risk of being in contact with other animals and people period.
Bah!
The fact that they didn't UV the blood is... well... kinda scary. I mean... how many people have chicken salmonella floating around in their blood if this one woman got hers from a boa? More people have contact with chickens (dead ones, given), than with boas, and 25% of chicken carcasses are infected. Remind me not to get sick!

Erin B.

From what I have read, Salmonella from snakes are primarily from snakes that are fed baby chicks or foul of some type. I don't know how often it is found in snakes that have been fed rodents thier entire lives. I have also herd of the salmonella being detected in sheds that were over a year old. I don't know how common it truly is in reptiles but I agree, handwashing should be common practice for this and many other reasons.

I grew up in the restraunt/food service industries. Salmonella poisoning is much more common due to improperly handled chicken than what I've seen with reptiles. But it makes such a better story in the news that your 8' snake can cause problems than your chicken salad.