Healthy Animals, Healthy People: Zoonosis Risk from Animal Contact in Pet Shops, a Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

BackgroundAround 67 million pets are owned by households in the United Kingdom, and an increasing number of these are exotic animals. Approximately a third of pets are purchased through retail outlets or direct from breeders. A wide range of infections can be associated with companion animals.ObjectivesThis study uses a systematic literature review to describe the transmission of zoonotic disease in humans associated with a pet shop or other location selling pets (incidents of rabies tracebacks and zoonoses from pet food were excluded).Data sourcesPubMed and EMBASE.ResultsFifty seven separate case reports or incidents were described in the 82 papers that were identified by the systematic review. Summary information on each incident is included in this manuscript. The infections include bacterial, viral and fungal diseases and range in severity from mild to life threatening. Infections associated with birds and rodents were the most commonly reported. Over half of the reports describe incidents in the Americas, and three of these were outbreaks involving more than 50 cases. Many of the incidents identified relate to infections in pet shop employees.LimitationsThis review may have been subject to publication bias, where unusual and unexpected zoonotic infections may be over-represented in peer-reviewed publications. It was also restricted to English-language articles so that pathogens that are more common in non-Western countries, or in more exotic animals not common in Europe and the Americas, may have been under-represented.Conclusions/implicationsA wide spectrum of zoonotic infections are acquired from pet shops. Salmonellosis and psittacosis were the most commonly documented diseases, however more unusual infections such as tularemia also appeared in the review. Given their potential to spread zoonotic infection, it is important that pet shops act to minimise the risk as far as possible.

Chlamydia psittaci(psittacosis) as a cause of community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Infection with Chlamydia psittaci is mainly described in situations that entail close contact with birds. This includes pet shops, veterinary hospitals, and bird shows [2][3][4]. Furthermore, C. psittaci infections are reported in poultry, with human cases linked to occupational exposure in the poultry industry [5][6][7].…”

Detección de parásitos gastrointestinales en hurones (Mustela putorius furo) mediante análisis coprológico

“…Existe la posibilidad que el hurón adquiera estas amebas al cohabitar con animales domésticos como perros o gatos (Plaut et al, 1996; Halsby et al, 2014); sin embargo, d'Ovidio et al (2014) demuestran que la interacción entre hurones y otras mascotas es extremadamente rara, donde los hurones de propiedad privada que resultaron positivos compartían su ambiente con perros o gatos fueron todos negativos. Se presume que la infección de hurones con estos protozoos podría provenir de diferentes fuentes, desde propietarios portadores de los protozoos asociados a deficientes condiciones higiénicas de alimentación y agua de bebida, la probable intervención de un vector como Musca domestica para la infestación parasitaria (Romero et al, 2004) o por posible contacto con especies domésticas como caninos o felinos, generando una infección espuria en los hurones (Plaut et al, 1996;Halsby et al, 2014).…”

Severe pet-transmitted zoonosis in a patient with a compromised immune system

“…Pet shop employees may contract salmonellosis or psittacosis from birds and rodents. 8 Veterinary clinics are associated with the transmission of Bartonella, Brucella, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella. 9,10 Exposure to cattle on farms can lead to cryptosporidiosis, 10 and petting zoo animals should be avoided given their potential for colonization with Salmonella and Campylobacter.…”