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Arkansas Pet Distributor Quarantined

Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The state Department of Health and Human Services ordered a pet store distributing company quarantined Friday after officials suspected some of the store's rodents were infected with a virus that can be harmful to humans.

Midsouth Distributors of Arkansas LLC near Scott was also prohibited from selling and distributing animals to pet stores and consumers and ordered to allow testing of some of its animals for the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, a department release said.

The Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arkansas State Police also executed the order.

In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, three people died after receiving organ transplants from a donor who tested positive for the virus, known as LCMV. The organ donor owned a hamster that was bought from Midsouth Distributors of Ohio LLC, which has common ownership with Midsouth Distributors of Arkansas LLC, the Arkansas officials said.

The Ohio facility let the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention test their hamsters and guinea pigs for the virus after the deaths. The tests results showed that two hamsters, which had arrived from the Arkansas facility, were infected with LCMV. A third was found to have had the infection in the past, the release said.

The virus occurs naturally in mice, but can also be carried by hamsters, rats and guinea pigs, Frank Wilson, the state epidemiologist said. It is found in the rodents' saliva, urine and feces, he said.

Pregnant women are at a higher risk than others if exposed to LCMV, Wilson said. The virus can cause mental retardation, impaired vision and other severe birth defects, as well as miscarriage, he said.

If an infection does occur in a human the most common symptoms are fever, loss of appetite, muscle aches, headaches, nausea and vomiting. A small number of infected people develop inflammation of the membranes around the brain.

Death is not common in humans infected with LCMV, the release said.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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