Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This new article concludes that RAS is serious enough (74,000 cases/year nationwide) to justify legal restrictions on reptile sales. I contacted my states (WI) health dept. to see if they could tell me how many cases occur annually in WI. They said about 25 cases/year in WI and they werent especially concerned about it since there were thousands from all other causes. I would expect WI to have close to 1000 cases/year based on the CDC numbers. Why the discrepancy?
2004 CDC Reptile-Associated Salmonellosis Article

I would believe your states health dept. over CDC. IMHO

>>I would believe your states health dept. over CDC. IMHO

My humble opinion too. I was puttering around the CDC site a while back and for some of their "evil pet reptile" stuff they cited HSUS as a source. That says it all.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

I called Virginia last year to see what numbers they had and they said they said salmonella cases have increased but they aren't broken down by cause.

I have heard that a local Ohio Health Department has said these cases increase when the carnival goes through.

The paper itself admits that less than one percent of salmonella infections are definitively linked to reptile-associated strains. That should say it all. Why are they pursuing this issue to vehemently when most cases come from contaminated food? Sounds like HSUS is getting it's dollar worth out of lobbying attempts!

>>I called Virginia last year to see what numbers they had and they said they said salmonella cases have increased but they aren't broken down by cause.
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>>I have heard that a local Ohio Health Department has said these cases increase when the carnival goes through.

>>"I was puttering around the CDC site a while back and for some of their "evil pet reptile" stuff they cited HSUS as a source. That says it all."
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>> Chris do you have a link to that .? I find it disturbing the CDC is going to the HSUS of all places for sorce material .

I just did a quick search on "HSUS" on the CDC website and came up with this:

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00047723.htm

Although it deals with dogs, the third sentence says the CDC got their data from HSUS.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

It appears to me that the 74,000 figure is a projection based
on the data they have analysed, and not on an actual head count
of 74,000 reported cases.

It would be impossible to get an accurate count of actual cases
of reptile induced salmonellosis (ar any form of salmonellosis)
as many times in healthy people light infections are often mistaken
for other illnesses(stomach flu, etc, etc) and go unreported.

The number of reported cases is actually much lower. The CDC factored in what they thought were unreported cases that should have been reported. Much like the census bureau padding certain geographical areas because they thought that some people weren't counted. ~Bill~
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