Experts say two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool were among 107 people sickened in the largest salmonella outbreak blamed on turtles nationwide, The Associated Press reported.
Mostly children were victims of the 2007-08 outbreak in 34 states, where officials said at least one-third of all patients had to be hospitalized.
Many of the parents involved didn’t know that turtles could carry salmonella and despite a 1975 ban on selling small turtles as pets, they continue to be sold illegally.
In fact, the number of pet turtles nationwide doubled from 950,000 in 1996 to almost 2 million in 2006, according to estimates from the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Julie Harris, a scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the report’s lead author, said it’s very easy to think of turtles as being a very gentle and nice pet, but many carry salmonella, without showing any signs.
Salmonella in turtle feces can end up on their shells and body, and can spread to people who handle them.
One turtle can spread the same strain of salmonella to others during shipping, which may be how the outbreak occurred. The turtles involved were purchased from pet shops, flea markets, street vendors and over the Internet.
The report said that the Food and Drug Administration contacted retailers involved and is carrying out an ongoing investigation.
The report, released Monday and published in October’s Pediatrics, said “continued, collective efforts are needed, both on state and federal levels, to enforce the ban and protect public health.”
In September 2007, a Union County, N.C., teen swam in her backyard pool with two pet turtles and a friend from South Carolina. Both girls soon developed bloody diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps; one developed kidney failure and spent eight days in the hospital.
Harris said the salmonella bacteria traced to those turtles matched salmonella later found in three other North Carolina children. Other cases turned up elsewhere, many involving direct contact with turtles, including children kissing turtles or putting them in their mouths.
She said indirect contact also likely occurred — children playing with turtles at school may have brought the germs home and spread them to other friends and family.
Throughout January of 2008, illnesses from the same kind of salmonella began appearing coast to coast, including 12 people in California, 10 each in Pennsylvania and Texas, and nine in Illinois.
Harris said no one died in the outbreak but many required several days of hospital treatment. “Everyone from pediatricians to other public health professionals need to really stress that reptiles and especially turtles are a source of salmonella infections,” she said.
Only turtles less than about 4 inches in diameter are part of the ban, mainly because of reports that young children had gotten sick after putting the small reptiles in their mouths.
Officials reported some cases of families letting turtles walk on kitchen surfaces where food is prepared, and babies being bathed in sinks where turtle cages are washed, according to David Bergmire-Sweat, a North Carolina epidemiologist who investigated the Union County case.
He said that because the federal ban was enacted more than 30 years ago, many people just don’t remember it. Meanwhile, recent efforts to overturn the ban, backed by turtle farmers, have failed.
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