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SAN ANTONIO — Salmonella infections that simultaneously occurred in four children at a Michigan elementary school were traced to mice that had been shipped to the school from a business in Texas as food for a classroom pet snake, according to a researcher with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The incident was detailed in a poster presented by Carol M. Davis, Ph.D., at the Southwest Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man.
The initial cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and the results of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis tests were entered into a CDC database called PulseNet.
Using PulseNet, the state of Minnesota discovered that recent human cases in that state were enzymatically similar to those from the Michigan children. An investigation determined that three Salmonella-positive mice shipped by the business were the likely vector.
Dr. Davis and colleagues then conducted an inspection of the breeding facility, a small operation that showed signs of lax sanitation.
Samples of rodent feed, rodent feces, and the rodents themselves were positive for salmonella. The business was subsequently brought into compliance by Texas authorities.
A total of 12 human salmonella cases were linked to the mouse-breeding business.
Dr. Davis and her coinvestigators said that individuals should be more vigilant about washing their hands after they handle rodents and pet reptiles, and the investigators also recommended better warning labels on the packaging of food rodents.
SAN ANTONIO — Salmonella infections that simultaneously occurred in four children at a Michigan elementary school were traced to mice that had been shipped to the school from a business in Texas as food for a classroom pet snake, according to a researcher with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The incident was detailed in a poster presented by Carol M. Davis, Ph.D., at the Southwest Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man.
The initial cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and the results of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis tests were entered into a CDC database called PulseNet.
Using PulseNet, the state of Minnesota discovered that recent human cases in that state were enzymatically similar to those from the Michigan children. An investigation determined that three Salmonella-positive mice shipped by the business were the likely vector.
Dr. Davis and colleagues then conducted an inspection of the breeding facility, a small operation that showed signs of lax sanitation.
Samples of rodent feed, rodent feces, and the rodents themselves were positive for salmonella. The business was subsequently brought into compliance by Texas authorities.
A total of 12 human salmonella cases were linked to the mouse-breeding business.
Dr. Davis and her coinvestigators said that individuals should be more vigilant about washing their hands after they handle rodents and pet reptiles, and the investigators also recommended better warning labels on the packaging of food rodents.
SAN ANTONIO — Salmonella infections that simultaneously occurred in four children at a Michigan elementary school were traced to mice that had been shipped to the school from a business in Texas as food for a classroom pet snake, according to a researcher with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The incident was detailed in a poster presented by Carol M. Davis, Ph.D., at the Southwest Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man.
The initial cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and the results of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis tests were entered into a CDC database called PulseNet.
Using PulseNet, the state of Minnesota discovered that recent human cases in that state were enzymatically similar to those from the Michigan children. An investigation determined that three Salmonella-positive mice shipped by the business were the likely vector.
Dr. Davis and colleagues then conducted an inspection of the breeding facility, a small operation that showed signs of lax sanitation.
Samples of rodent feed, rodent feces, and the rodents themselves were positive for salmonella. The business was subsequently brought into compliance by Texas authorities.
A total of 12 human salmonella cases were linked to the mouse-breeding business.
Dr. Davis and her coinvestigators said that individuals should be more vigilant about washing their hands after they handle rodents and pet reptiles, and the investigators also recommended better warning labels on the packaging of food rodents.