• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Don’t Kiss Your Pet Dragon, Unless You Fancy A Week On The Toilet

June 18, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

As tempting as it is to give our pets a lil’ smooch when we see them, it’s probably not a great idea if that pet happens to be a bearded dragon. That’s because there’s currently a multistate Salmonella outbreak in the US and it’s been linked back to the otherwise lovely lizards.

Advertisement

The outbreak of a strain known as Salmonella Cotham appears to have begun in January this year. Since then, 15 people have been reported as infected across nine different states, although the true number of infections may be much higher – lots of people who get sick with Salmonella recover and don’t get tested for it. 

Advertisement

However, four people have been hospitalized with the illness, though no deaths have been reported.

When it comes to outbreaks like this, public health officials often use a technique called whole genome sequencing to identify the genetic fingerprint of the bacteria causing the illness. In this case, it suggested that everybody had got sick from closely related bacteria.

These bacteria were also related to a strain that had previously caused an outbreak from 2012 to 2014 – and that had been linked to bearded dragon exposure.

During interviews with 12 of the infected people, seven of them reported having been in contact with a bearded dragon in the week before they got sick. Though in one case, it’s thought a reptile roaming free in the house led to indirect exposure, in the majority, this involved caring for the animals, such as touching them, cleaning out their enclosures, and feeding them.

Advertisement

“Bearded dragons can carry Salmonella germs in their droppings even if they look healthy and clean,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “You can get sick from touching your bearded dragon or anything in its environment and then touching your mouth or food and swallowing Salmonella.”

It’s a major reason why bearded dragons aren’t recommended as pets for people with weakened immune systems, those aged over 65, and children younger than 5 – 60 percent of the reported infections were in kids of that age group.

That advice isn’t necessarily because young children aren’t always the best at hand hygiene, but because these groups are more likely to become seriously ill from a Salmonella infection. For most people, however, recovery comes after 4 to 7 days of some pretty unpleasant symptoms like diarrhea and fever. 

The CDC has recommended steps to try and prevent further instances of infection, such as washing your hands after handling a bearded dragon or touching their enclosure and not letting them roam freely where young children might crawl or play.

Advertisement

It’s also advised not to snuggle or kiss them, and as hard as that may be when they are thoroughly adorable, that goes for plenty of other pets too.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Slovak bishop who met Pope Francis last week tests positive for COVID
  2. Wells Fargo to pay $37.3 million to settle U.S. claims it fraudulently overcharged customers
  3. EU warns of security risks linked to migration from Afghanistan
  4. China Could Face A Catastrophic COVID Surge As It Lifts Restrictions – Here’s How It Might Play Out

Source Link: Don’t Kiss Your Pet Dragon, Unless You Fancy A Week On The Toilet

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • Meet The Heaviest Jelly In The Seas, Weighing Over Twice As Much As A Grand Piano
  • For The First Time, We’ve Found Evidence Climate Change Is Attracting Invasive Species To Canadian Arctic
  • What Are Microfiber Cloths, And How Do They Clean So Well?
  • Stowaway Rat That Hopped On A Flight From Miami Was A “Wake-Up Call” For Global Health
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version