Paws for Pets

You don’t often think of fish as dangerous house pets. They are quiet. They spend their days gurgling and burbling around in their little water worlds hardly bothering to pay us humans even the slightest bit of attention. Yet these warm water environments provide the perfect breeding grounds for a particularly nasty form of bacteria – the multidrug-resistant Salmonella Paratyphi B dT+. 

This particular variant of Salmonella can cause gastroenteritis in humans, especially in the young, the elderly or those with deficient or compromised immune systems (as reported in the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases). In some cases the complaints among those studied were severe enough to send patients to the hospital with high fever and bloody diarrhea. The strain is resistant to many drugs including ampicillin, choramphenicol, streptomycin and tetracycline. 

Salmonella infections usually result in cramping, vomiting and diarrhea. Most do not require antibiotics but those in the high risk group are at greater risk of having more serious or fatal infections. Due to the millions of homes with aquariums this becomes a public health issue. 

A study reported in the Canadian Journal of Public Health found that more than 50% of samples taken from fish tanks in homes, pet shops and from wholesalers also contained other strains of Salmonella. 

Safety precautions suggested include replacing 1/3 of the water in the tank twice a month and using a well maintained filtering system. 

Common sense procedures like thoroughly washing hands with soap and water  and wearing rubber gloves will also help to reduce contamination. Young children should be strictly supervised around the tank and taught to keep their hands out of the water.Aquarium accessories should not be washed in the kitchen or bathroom sinks. If this is not possible then the surfaces should be sterilized with a bleach solution of 4 tablespoons per liter of lukewarm water.