Hedgehogs can be Hazardous to your Health

Each year literally hundreds of millions exotic animals are imported into the USA and Europe. An animal can be happily living in a jungle in Asia, South America or Africa one day, and find itself in a cage in some little girl’s bedroom in less than a week. The main problem is that many of these animals are not subject to any form of quarantine or only minimal health screening before they are allowed into the country and then into our homes. These new owners are ignorant of the fact that their pets could damage the health of themselves and their families.

Zoonotic Diseases

Zoonotic diseases are those that can jump from animals to humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA says that zoonotic diseases account for around three-quarters of all emerging infectious diseases today.

So what kinds of diseases could your pet hedgehog be carrying.

In 2005 a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research study provided a list of zoonotic diseases that it had confirmed hedgehogs could carry, along with several potential infectious diseases. The confirmed diseases include Salmonella, Yersina, pseudotubercolosis, Mycobacterium marinum, Herpesvirus including human herpes simplex and Rabies. The potential diseases they can carry include Yersina pestis (also responsible for Bubonic plague) and hemorrhagic fever.

Salmonella

Salmonella is normally contracted from contaminated food. However the CDC estimates that something like 5% of all infections are the result of contact with exotic pets. For example they estimate that nearly eighty thousand Americans contract Salmonella from their pet reptiles every year.

In 1994 African Pygmy Hedgehogs were responsible for passing on a rare form of Salmonella (S. tilene), to a 10 month old girl who became the first ever confirmed case of this serotype in a human in the USA. Her family bred hedgehogs and had a herd of 80 hedgehogs. One important point is the fact that the girl had never handled the hedgehogs herself. She was infected by a family member who had handled the hedgehogs. The same type of Salmonella has since been confirmed in many other cases.

Ringworm

Despite its name ringworm or Tinea is not a worm but is actually a fungal skin infection. One source of ringworm is known to be pet and wild hedgehogs. Over the past few months HedgehogsAsPets.com has been covering a story where three people were infected with ringworm by two hoglets bought from the same breeder.

This story even more frightening because the woman concerned somehow managed to get around the UK’s strict quarantine laws and import several African Pygmy Hedgehogs directly into the country from Germany. Rabies prevention laws normally mean that imported hedgehogs would spend six months a government approved facility before they can be imported into the UK.

In this story the breeder claims that the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) put aside their normal procedures and permitted her to quarantine her new pets in her house, (which incidentally was already a veritable zoo containing snakes, lizards, rats, other hedgehogs and sugar gliders). The breeder later learned that the German breeder’s herd was infected with ringworm, but not before she had spread the disease from the “German” hedgehogs to her breeding pair. The offspring of these latter were sold and went on to infect three people with ringworm.

As well as the ringworm part of the story, this case illustrates what happens when you buy your pets from unreliable and dishonest dealers and breeders. After six months, notwithstanding she has said she will refund part of their vet’s costs, she still hasn’t done so.

Reducing the risk of infection

To reduce the risk of infection simply go to this site and follow the advice they give there: http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/browse_by_animal.htm.

Buying your pet from a reputable breeder rather than a pet store or pet distributor, should also provide you with more guarantees about where the animal came from.

While the risk of catching some terrible disease from your pet is quite small, owners must be aware that it does exist. The information you will find on the CDC website will assist you to minimise the risk.