Hedgehogs can be Hazardous to your Health
Thursday, April 30th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Hundreds of millions of legally and illegally imported exotic pets are flooding into the USA and Europe every year. 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. In the USA today, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that zoonotic diseases are responsible for 75% of all emerging infectious diseases.
So what kinds of diseases could your pet hedgehog be carrying.
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. Her family kept a herd of approximately 80 hedgehogs. One important point is the fact that the girl had never handled the hedgehogs herself. A family member who had handled the hedgehogs passed the infection on to her. The same serotype was later diagnosed 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.
This tale is all the more intriguing as the breeder concerned managed to avoid Britain’s severe quarantine rules and brought a number of pet hedgehogs into the country from Germany. Usually anti rabies legislation requires hedgehogs to spend six months in a government regulated facility before they can be imported into the country.
Something that has also raised not a few eyebrows in this case is that this woman claims that the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) gave her permission to quarantine these hedgehogs at home, in a house that must have seemed like a veritable zoo, containing other hedgehogs, sugar gliders, snakes, lizards and rats, as well as cats and dogs.
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.
This tale is also an example of what can happen when you purchase your pet from less than reputable 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.
Purchasing your pet from a reputable breeder instead of a pet store, should provide you with more guarantees about the origins of the animal.
While the risk of catching some terrible disease from your pet is quite small, owners must be aware that it does exist. Follwing the advice on the CDC site will help you to reduce the risk of infection to a minimum.
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