Food Safety Network

My memories of turtles -- and salmonella

01.aug.06, Doug Powell, Commentary from the Food Safety Network

In 2005, a Tampa newspaper reported that the number of businesses Â
selling turtles illegally had surged in Florida, which a local Â
epidemiologist said was responsible for an increase in human Â
salmonella cases in the area.

01.aug.06, Doug Powell, Commentary from the Food Safety Network
My first warm-blooded pets were two kittens a girl gave me near the Â
end of university.
But growing up in late-1960s suburbia, my parents thought dogs should Â
run on farms like their dogs had, and cats were a nuisance.
So I had a turtle.
Turtles were inexpensive, popular, and low maintenance, with an array Â
of groovy pre-molded plastic housing designs to choose from. Â
Invariably they would escape, only to be found days later behind the Â
couch along with the skeleton of the class bunny my younger sister Â
brought home from kindergarten for the weekend.
But eventually, replacement turtles became harder to come by. Reports Â
started surfacing that people with pet turtles were getting sick. In Â
1975, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned commercial Â
distribution of turtles less than 4 inches in length and it has been Â
estimated that the FDA ban prevents some 100,000 cases of Â
salmonellosis among children each year.
Maybe I got sick from my turtle.
Maybe I picked up my turtle, rolled around on the carpet with it, pet Â
it a bit, and then stuck my finger in my mouth. Maybe in my Â
emotionally vacant adolescence I kissed my turtle. Who can remember?
The parents of 11 fifth-graders at Jefferson Elementary School in Â
Milford, Mass. now confirmed with salmonella might be asking the same Â
questions. The State Department of Public Health is looking at the Â
water in the turtle's aquarium as a possible contaminator, while Â
still exploring a link to a fifth-grade science experiment involving Â
the dissection of owl pellets.
Despite the FDA ban, those small turtles are still allowed for Â
educational purposes.
And apparently I wasn't the only pet-deprived child getting cuddly Â
with a turtle. Josh Kiefer of Du Quoin, Ill. is tapping into yet Â
another form of baby-boomer nostalgia and selling hundreds of Â
supposedly salmonella-free red-eared slider turtles each month at his Â
Sea Creatures shop.
"I can’t keep them in stock," said Kiefer recently in a local paper. Â
"They’re very popular. I think it’s really kind of a retro thing for Â
a lot of people."
The demand is certainly there -- legal or not.
In 2005, a Tampa newspaper reported that the number of businesses Â
selling turtles illegally had surged in Florida, which a local Â
epidemiologist said was responsible for an increase in human Â
salmonella cases in the area. Breeding turtle couples are advertized Â
for purchase on the Internet so tweens can spawn their own under 4-
inch reptiles. And investigations of previous turtle-related Â
outbreaks found that while many retailers were aware of the FDA ban, Â
they attempted to circumvent it by giving away turtles with purchase Â
of a turtle habitat -- groovy molding -- or by claiming that turtles Â
were being distributed for educational purposes only.
And it's not just turtles.
Australian researchers recently reported that a multidrug-resistant Â
strain of Salmonella paratyphi B sent some children to the hospital Â
with high fever and bloody diarrhea. Investigators used DNA Â
fingerprinting to trace the source to fish tanks in the patients' homes.
Each spring, some children become infected with salmonella after Â
receiving a baby chick or duckling for Easter -- probably like their Â
parents before them.
Pocket pets, including rats, mice, rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, guinea Â
pigs and ferrets, as well as rodents that are bought to feed other Â
animals (such as snakes), can also carry potentially dangerous bacteria.
Contact with reptiles and amphibians accounts for an estimated 74,000 Â
(6 per cent) of the approximately 1.2 million sporadic human Â
Salmonella infections that occur annually in the United States.
Perhaps it is possible to raise and live with salmonella-free Â
turtles. But, remember the first rule of public health: keep poop out Â
of your mouth. Nostalgia is nice, but it's not a cure for salmonella.
Douglas Powell is an associate professor and scientific director of Â
the Food Safety Network at Kansas State University
dpowell@ksu.edu
785-317-0560
www.foodsafety.ksu.edu