A Salmonella outbreak caused by contact with frozen rodents used as food for snakes and other pets has sickened 37 people in 18 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced this week. And this isn’t the first time contact with tainted pet food has caused illness in humans.
Since 2007, there have been four such Salmonella outbreaks, according to the CDC. People can get sick from contaminated pet food by feeding a pet or touching a surface the food has touched and then not thoroughly washing their hands before touching their face or eating a meal.
The current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak, which has hospitalized five people, has been linked to Arctic Mice brand frozen rodents produced by Reptile Industries, Inc. of Naples Fla. and sold at PetSmart stores nationwide. Illnesses have been reported in the following states:Alabama (1), Arizona (2), California (7), Illinois (1), Kentucky (1), Maryland (1), Michigan (2), Minnesota (1), Missouri (2), Montana (3), New Jersey (3), New Mexico (1), North Carolina (1), Ohio (4), Oregon (2), Pennsylvania (3), South Dakota (1), and Texas (1).
In 2012, a Salmonella Infantis outbreak linked to dry dog food produced by Diamond Pet Foods sickened 47 people in 20 states and two more people in Canada. Ten people were hospitalized. Seventeen brands of dog food totaling 30,000 tons produced at the Diamond plant were recalled.
In 2010, 34 people in 17 states contracted Salmonella poisoning from frozen rodents used as food for snakes and other pets. That strain was Salmonella I 4,[5],12:i:-.
And between 2006 and 2007, 62 people in 18 states were part of a Salmonella Schwarzengrund outbreak. That outbreak was linked to dry pet food produced by Mars Petcare US at a plant in Pennsylvania.
