Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can humans give reptiles diseases? Sorry for the vague question.
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-J.Hill

Yes, but rarely, if ever. I'm not a human expert but the bacterial and parasitic pathogens transferable to reptiles sound kind of rare. As for the cold and flu, no worries there.
So there's a vague answer to a vague question, if you need more specifics I could probably look them up.

Ian

A girl was making people put hand sanitizer on their hands before holding her animals and asked me why I thought she was doing that, I said because the people were just holding rodents (mice, rats, chinchilla, rabbits etc.) and that she did'nt want people to be bitten. She said it was to prevent people giving her reptiles diseases, and she had the audacity to call me an idiot. Now keep in mind she did not have people sanitize their hands after handling the reptiles. Now I've never heard of having a human give a reptile disease other than right after coming in contact with another reptile. This was in a class i'm in at school. I like to think that I know a bit about reptiles and I was just checking my side. (keep in mind I'm not an expert by no means) but I've never even read of this in a book.
Howabout now for a less vauge answer? thanks
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-J.Hill

awe, but it's so easy to look up information going the other way, this'll take a bit of time

I'll get on it, but in the mean time, I really think that this girl misunderstood what was learned and is indeed talking about reptile to reptile disease tranmission using people as a fomite.

As for human to reptile... well, salmonella, e-coli,... all bacteria that are pathogenic to both species, yet are warded off by healthy individuals when only a small amount encountered. I'll take a quick scan through Mader again, and ask on vspn and see if I get anywhere.

Ian

Well, it's been almost a week and I can't find any specifics on human to reptile disease transfer. So, I would think it's pretty limited to the bacteria already known to share; pretty much anything in the environment. So really, it's not human to reptile.

I should mention that I'm definately not the authority on this topic, but being a herp health nut, if there was anything common or reason for the person mentioned to worry about, I'm sure I wouldn't heard about it.

Ian

Thanks, I did a little searching and could find nothing at all.
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-J.Hill