CDC says turtles are to blame after 16 people hospitalized with salmonella

The Centers for Disease Control said that turtles are implicated in a 13-state outbreak of salmonella that has left at least 37 people sickened and 16 hospitalized since March. A third of the cases were in children 5 years of age or younger.

In interviews, ill people answered questions about their contact with animals, and 45 percent of the 33 people interviewed said they had contact with turtles or their immediate environments before becoming sick, the CDC said.

Some people said they had purchased small turtles from a flea market or street vendor, or had received them as a gift. Selling turtles with shells less than 4 inches long as pets has been illegal since 1975, but that hasn’t stopped traders from selling the reptiles under the radar.

The CDC sequenced the genome of the salmonella bacteria found on turtles collected at a local street vendor and the salmonella found in the sick people, and found that they were closely related.

“This close genetic relationship means that people in this outbreak are more likely to share a common source of infection,” the CDC said.

Outbreaks like this have happened before, the most recent being in 2015, where 133 people were sickened. In 2013, nearly 500 became ill and 78 people wound up in the hospital.

To prevent illness, the CDC says not to purchase a small turtle as a pet or give them out as gifts. They are the ones most commonly linked to salmonella outbreaks, but any size turtle can carry the salmonella bacteria, even if they look healthy.

Here are some other tips the CDC recommends to prevent infection.

• Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after handling turtles or anything in the area where they live or roam, or after contact with pet feces. Do not touch your face, other people or any surface until hands have been washed.
• Keep turtles out of homes with children younger than 5 years, adults older than 65 years, or people with weakened immune systems.
• Turtles and other reptiles should not be kept in child care centers, schools, or other facilities with children younger than 5 years.
• Do not allow turtles to roam freely in the home or living area, especially in food preparation areas.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 10:38 AM with the headline "CDC says turtles are to blame after 16 people hospitalized with salmonella."