Environmental Health Division news letter. WOW!!

[jen5680]

I get a email from our school every week about all kinds of things and I was really surprised that the EHD wrote this???

Warren County Combined Health Dist. Newsletter – Apr. 2011

BABY CHICKS AND DUCKLINGS

Spring is time when many kids start to enjoy the outdoors and look forward to coloring and hunting eggs and waking up to a gift from the Easter Bunny, that hopefully includes a large chocolate bunny. The Warren County Combined Health District is advising families to avoid a gift that could be potentially harmful to your children: baby chicks and ducklings. Baby chicks and ducklings can expose children to Salmonella. Ohio has had several Salmonella cases related to baby chicks during the past few years. Many of the cases were in young children. Children have become infected with Salmonella when parents keep the baby birds inside the house and allow their small children to handle them. This is a National Public Health Problem this time of year. Many chicks and young birds carry Salmonella in their droppings, and it is difficult to know if the animals are carrying Salmonella because they will not usually show signs of illness. While there are many legitimate reasons to purchase baby chicks and ducklings to raise for food, we are urging feed stores in Warren County to strongly discourage people from buying baby chicks and ducklings as pets, especially if they have young children. Early symptoms of Salmonella in people include fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. These symptoms develop within one to three days after exposure to baby chicks/ducklings and their droppings. Other symptoms might be nausea, chills or headaches. For more information please contact the Environmental Health Division

 

[Ferrret]

Well it is an understandable concern. Many people don't wash their hands after handling animals since they don't think it is necessary. Anyone handling birds and reptiles should wash immediately afterward to prevent illness and just as good practice. You should wash your hands after playing with cats, dogs or any pets and animals just as a precaution.

People are also swayed into buying animals because they are cute or popular without knowing how to care for them. How many CL ads sprout up in May and June with people wanting to get rid of Easter chicks that are growing up and becoming a nuisance?
It wouldn't surprise me if the movie 'Hop' has got kids wanting bunnies and chicks because the cute animated ones were so cool to them. Kids movies featuring animals have that effect, the main animal is suddenly desired and sales of the animal go up. Kids today still go into pet stores wanting to get a 'nemo' fish after watching 'Finding Nemo'. 'Rango' has caused a larger interest in chameleons, 'Rio' will likely get kids wanting parrots or other tropical birds, 'Bolt' got kids to want puppies. It's a sad effect and not much is done to stop it, by way of only selling to people that know how to care for the animal in question. A lot of pet stores will sell to anyone, no real questions asked.

I think the newsletter has it's heart in the right place but made a poor choice in singling out one, somewhat scary, issue for parents, their kids getting sick. It's great that they don't want people buying up chicks and ducklings willy nilly, but they could have probably made a better argument for why parent's shouldn't.

 

[hennyannie]

I can't figure out why adults fall for the movie animal fad thing. I groomed dogs for years, and even if the dog was the wrong type for the family they would get one because they saw it in the movies. EX. Snowdogs. This type dogs need lots of grooming, but people will get them and chunk them in the back yard when they start shed. Then months later they find bad hotspots and rush them to a groomer. Glad that more people are using the computer to research the breeds before buying.