It does frustrate me that the CDC does exhibit this sort of bias, although they do have good recommendations to prevent exposure. What really irritates me though, is when my infant daughter was sick in the hospital this past winter; when obtaining a history, the doc asked if we had any pets. I responded with we had cats, dogs, fish and reptiles. I also mentioned that I'm a zookeeper who works with primates, various avian taxa, etc. He then proceeds to lecture me about salmonellosis associated with reptiles. I went nuts. I fired back with dog bite stats, cat scratch fever, TB from birds and primates, various flus(again- primates, birds and felids), parasitic infection from all animals, etc. Yet, the jackass lectures me about reptile related salmonella. I finished with saying that I am a professional animal handler--I know how to prevent zoonoses; I don't tell him about human anatomy, so he shouldn't lecture me on the basics of my profession either. He left rather humbled. I normally would not have reacted that way, but he ignored every other creature that I come in contact with that could be the source of some sort of infection or pose a threat to the health of my daughter and targeted herps. Her symptoms were not even digestive, either--so there was no reason to talk about salmonella.

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