How pets can make you sick

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-12 10:02

Cats also occasionally transmit cat scratch fever, a bacterial disease. "Localized pustules appear," Osterrieder says. In rare cases, the pustules spread over the entire body. A problem, he says, is that many pet owners and physicians do not immediately recognize the cause of the ailment.

Animals sometimes pass on viruses like cowpox, as happened in 2008 in the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. "Most of the people affected had kept infected rodents such as colored rats, or had fed them to their snakes," Osterrieder says.

"In humans, this pox occurs after they've handled the animal, and it's usually confined to the lips or eyes. But it can spread to the entire body of people with weakened immune systems, and even lead to death."

Snakes and other reptiles are not wholly harmless either. Domestically bred animals are generally unproblematic, according to Rudolf Hoffmann, a veterinarian specializing in fish and reptiles who works at Munich's Reptile Collection Station.

"Animals recently imported from the tropics, in particular, could be infected, however," he says.

Snakes, for example, can carry one-celled parasites. The infection usually becomes evident to their owners when the animals vomit.

"Cleaning a terrarium can lead to a faecal smear infection with major gastrointestinal consequences," Hoffmann points out. Salmonella can also be transmitted in this way.

"Keeping reptiles is not really risky when proper hygiene is observed, however," he adds. This meant not taking animals like turtles into bed, and washing one's hands thoroughly after handling them.

No matter what kind of pet they have, owners should not be overly worried about infection. "Theoretically, pets can transmit just about everything, from viruses to bacteria to parasites," Osterrieder says. "In practice, though, it happens amazingly seldom."

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