Scientists’ Warning To Owners Of Turtles

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30858, 17 September 1965, Page 17

Scientists’ Warning To Owners Of Turtles

"The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, Sept. 16. Scientists at the Ruakura research station, have been investigating turtles to see if they are a source of salmonella disease. No conclusive results have been obtained, but the scientists warn turtle owners to take sensible hygienic precautions in handling and feeding their pets. Publicity in America about the likelihood of infection I from turtles led to the research. In a recent issue of the British medical journal, the | “Lancet” an article quoted a I Minnesota newspaper as callpng attention to some of the | dangers of the turtle hobby. In the United States the isolation of salmonella panama from a young girl led to the finding of the same organism in the water in which her pet turtle lived. She had developed the habit of sucking the pebbles from the bottom of the tank.

The discovery prompted the State Department of Health to examine a number of the apparently harmless pets.

The article reported: “About 250 turtles for retail sale yielded six salmonella serotypes: those from wholesalers were even more productive. Twenty-two human infections came to light which might have been due directly or indirectly to turtles. Most of the victims

were children and at least one was seriously ill.” The article said some of the people infected—it did not stipulate whether adults or children—seemed to have drunk the turtles’ tank water and “some to have cuddled their irresponsive pets.” There were other reports about emptying the tank water in the kitchen sink and putting the reptiles in food dishes.

The note of alarm sounded by the article was toned down 'by the statement that as long [as parents knew that any reptile was a possible if unlucky source of human disease there seemed to be no urgent call for administrative action. Nobody, it said, seemed to be much worried by the fact that domestic dogs harboured salmonella. However, the case histories of the turtles suggested that some lessons in domestic hygiene might be useful.