Just got over my attack of the giggles at the thought of the poor neighbor
who is under the impression that ferrets are crawling with deadly E. Coli
bacteria...
 
Some facts (for anyone who's curious):
 
There are different strains of e. coli, most of which live harmlessly
in the intestines of all normal, healthy animals (up to and INCLUDING
humans).  There is e. coli bacteria inside you right now.  The strain
that causes e. coli "outbreaks" is the 0157:H7 strain, which produces
toxins that can cause severe illness and death.  The CDC (Center for
Disease Control) estimates that 73,000 cases of 0157:H7 infection per
year result in around 61 deaths per year.
 
The dangerous 0157:H7 strain of bacteria has been found in farm animals
(hence the warnings about cooking meat thoroughly and washing hands and
counter surfaces after touching raw meat).  There have been reported
cases of contamination after touching farm animals; five school children
at a petting zoo in Washington were sickened by the 0157:H7 e. coli
strain after petting chicks, baby goats, and a calf and eating lunch
directly afterwards.  In the fall of last year, cases of 0157:H7 were
reported by vistors to a petting zoo/dairy farm where they were petting
pigs, goats, cows, chicks, etc., then eating without washing their hands
in the interim.  Common denominator in those cases: touching farm animals,
not washing hands, then eating food.
 
Other known sources of contamination are eating improperly washed alfalfa
sprouts and lettuce, drinking unpasteurized milk or juice (unpasteurized
cider has been the cause of e. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks), or drinking
sewage-contaminated water.  The bacteria can be passed from one sick
person to another if a person is caring for an individual who is ill with
e. coli and does not practice thorough handwashing after bathroom use.
 
The CDC's warnings on how to avoid e. coli include cooking meat
thoroughly, washing hands after handling raw beef or pork, keeping meat
utensils and cutting boards clean and reserved for cutting only meat,
avoiding swimming in unclean water, avoid drinking unpasteurized milk
and juice, wash ground-resting vegetables (such as lettuce, cabbage, etc)
very thoroughly with HOT water.
 
To sum up: everyone carries e. coli, but only farm animals, mainly cattle
and sometimes pigs (chickens are also suspect), are known to have the
toxic 0157:H7 strain able to live in their intestines and cause them no
harm, but spread infection through meat and unpasteurized milk and
handling or petting the animal.  Anyone who's driven by a cow pasture
won't have trouble figuring out how cows could get e.coli bacteria
transferred from their intestines to their belly, sides, and udders; a
cow is one of the few animals that will take an enormous dump, turn
around, and then lie down contentedly IN its own waste.  Don't get me
wrong, I grew up on a dairy farm and like cows, but folks, that is one
seriously unhygienic animal!
 
For the record, there is NO report of a ferret-to-human contamination
that I could find.  I put in a call to 2 vets who confirm that to their
knowledge, ferrets have never been found to carry the 0157:H7 e.coli
strain or pass it on to humans.  Ferrets have harmless strains of e.coli
in their intestines, but so do we.
 
The neighbor may be thinking of salmonella, which is carried on the skin
of many lizards, and that is something she may have heard vaguely and is
remembering it but applying it to ferrets (maybe she saw a warning in a
pet store about the reptiles and salmonella and got confused as to which
animal they were warning about).  Lizards, such as iguanas, as well as
many turtle species have been found to carry salmonella bacteria on their
skin or shell that can sicken humans if they don't wash up carefully after
handling the animals.
 
People should wash their hands between touching ANY animal and handling
food or biting nails or any other sort of hand-mouth contact, because any
animal could have just scuffed through the litterbox, rolled in a dead
thing outside, slogged through dirty water, or camped out behind the
toilet for the afternoon.  Do I pratice what I preach?  No, not really.  I
kiss my ferret's noses even though I know they've just had it up someone
else's poop chute!
 
So, you might want to give your neighbor the correct info (maybe print
this out or print out some of the CDC's web page on e.  coli, and give it
to her to read) because she's quite mistaken in her facts and I'd hate to
think she's running around telling people that ferrets carry e.coli and
are a danger to humans and that people are believing her!  I can find no
documented information on e.coli as it relates to ferrets at all, so she
either picked up this misinformation from another misinformed person, or
she read something and misunderstood it.  You have a better chance of
getting e.  coli from your salads and sprouts than from your ferret!
 
 -Heather W.
  Kissing Dirty Weasels in Massachusetts
[Posted in FML issue 3694]