Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I currently work in a bakery, I am a cake decorator. My problem is we were all called into the training room yesterday and given canisters from the health department. The canisters are for samples to test for possible salmonella. Do any of you know the likelyhood of it being my fault that all these cases of salmonella are breaking out in my area? I have a bottle of hand sanitizer next to my snakes tank which I use as precation every single time I handle him, before and after, before for his protection, after for mine, and I always wash my hands before and after, then use the sanitizer, Is it possible that this is my fault? I know I'm freaking out early but I'm really concerned. I'd hate to find out that it is in fact my fault, but I'm just scared. Any body that can give me a few answers would be appreciated......Thanks in advanced.

It probably isn't your fault if you really sanitize your hands and wash your hands like you say. You never know, it could be bad meat going around or something.

>>I currently work in a bakery, I am a cake decorator. My problem is we were all called into the training room yesterday and given canisters from the health department. The canisters are for samples to test for possible salmonella. Do any of you know the likelyhood of it being my fault that all these cases of salmonella are breaking out in my area? I have a bottle of hand sanitizer next to my snakes tank which I use as precation every single time I handle him, before and after, before for his protection, after for mine, and I always wash my hands before and after, then use the sanitizer, Is it possible that this is my fault? I know I'm freaking out early but I'm really concerned. I'd hate to find out that it is in fact my fault, but I'm just scared. Any body that can give me a few answers would be appreciated......Thanks in advanced.

I seriously doubt you and your snake are the problem.
Keeping your snakes enclosure clean and washing your hands should take care of that problem.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

_____

>>
aren't you guys supposed to wear those little plastic gloves?
You should.
That would alleviate the chances of you or your work mates spreading salmonela and other germs.
-----
Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

_____

Not likely, very little chance that you are the cause. As long as you are washing your hands with soap and using the sanitizer, you shouldn't be paranoid.
I am curious about why you are paranoid/concerned that you may be the cause. Has the bakery been accused of being the source of a salmonella outbreak?
Just a little info about hands on experience with salmonella. I keep a type of dog that is commonly fed raw meat including chicken. In fact, raw chicken is fed more often than raw ground beef. Probably 4X a week on average. The breeder that provided us with our dog keeps about a dozen adults. They are fed raw chicken 7 days a week. Knock on wood, there has never been a problem with any of the dogs, no salmonella. Of course, the wings and legs that we feed are thoroughly washed. If you search the web for BARF diet (horrible name) you will find lots of info about the raw diet for dogs. It includes raw chicken, vegetables, rice, etc.

the stores in our area are being asked to submit to salmonella testing because of an unsually high amount of cases of it in the public in our area. Apparantly there are a few times a year it spikes and goes down, it hasn't went down in our area yet and they are concerned. One of my co-workers mentioned that I have a snake and now everyone keeps telling me its my snake, blah blah blah, I've been doing this work for years and have had snakes for so long but never have had any problems with this particular issue before. Now that this is happening, I'm concerned and a little freaked out. They all acted as if it's my snakes issue and I tell ya felt like I was gonna get lynched on the way back to work that day. I've calmed down a bit since reading a little more about it, I guess there is a small chance of it coming from him but it's so remote that It's highly unlikely and I did talk with my health board worker and she told me the same thing, she said the chances of it coming from a snake owner who works there are highly unlikely, besides it can come from turtles, and other reptiles as well. She also said that it can come from people not properly cooking food at cook outs and stuff like that. So I'm feeling a little better now, and thank you so much for alievating some of my concerns

I work in an immunology research lab (admin staff)- our patients have NO immune system. I keep my snake pictures up in my lab office for all to see- and I have asked my boss, she is completely unconcerned about about my herpetology- much more concerned that people wash their hands. Some day count the number of times you touch your face and then food, other's hands, surface shared by co-workers, etc!

My ex once tried to run this salmonella jazz on me- gave our parent coordinator a local schlock writer's newspaper article (trying to stir up trouble for local schools who have snakes in classes) that was rabidly anti-reptile and horrible science.

The PC didn't bother to do research, but she still shot down the ex, based purely on the cleanliness of my set-ups- although I am now legally banned from washing herp stuff in the sink with eating utensils (I use my utility room deep sink anyway! And of course we use hand wash all the time!).

I did the research- if you want to spend your time educating your co-workers just google on "Salmonella". There is an excellent site on the FDA

http://www.foodsafety.gov/~mow/chap1.html

and CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/salmonellosis_g.htm

Unfortunately many agencies continue to pass along anti-reptile messages. Actually, Salmonella is several strains of common bacteria, by a huge margin usually food-borne, or else passed from person-to-person, usual case is mild-to-moderate diarrhea, and you are more likely to get it from a pet mammal than a reptile (I would love to see a graph of pet cases broken out by species- I'd guess most are goats and pet pigs!).

Reptile culprits are usually specimens forced to live in contact with moist droppings- one reason I use a deep layer of absorbent mulch in my tanks- I am against astroturf, blanket-type materials and newspapers.

Iguanas are high on the list of transmitters as they are often inadequately housed- not the iguana's fault!

Someone take my ex-wife...PLEASE!

wow thank you so much, and I'll have to say pass to taking the ex wife lol but I have an ex husband currently up for grabs!!! At any rate, I actually took my snake to work the other day, it relieved alot of tension concerning him, I didn't take him inside of course, but I was at the pet store across the street and stopped for lunch with a co-worker and while he and I were talking and holding Frosty, the co-workers I work directly with came out to see what the hubbub was about. My boss was so much more relaxed when the board of health worker pulled up and talked to us about the unlikelyhood of that snake causing the outbreak. We've all been submitting to our testing, and like I said before, it's not just us, its all the grocery stores in the area at the moment. They are just going threw a process of elimination so to speak. I will print out some of those articles and stuff and take them with me for our meeting next week as well. So far they've backed off about my animal though.