The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has documented 51 illnesses with 23 hospitalizations among 21 states since early July extending through August.  Both Salmonella Stanley and Salmonella Poona are implicated with a direct history of contact with an immature turtle.  Predictably a high proportion of the patient are under five years of age and equally spread among ethnic groups in the U.S. As with all Salmonella outbreaks, the number of those actually infected far exceeds the number diagnosed.

In 1975, interstate transport of immature turtles was banned, resulting in a precipitous decline in the number of cases of salmonellosis especially among children, reported the following year.

It is evident that there has been illegal interstate movement of turtles from Louisiana, the major producing state.  According to investigation, turtles were purchased from a variety of sources including street vendors, swap meets, online retailers with only a small proportion from pet stores who are aware of the risks involved.

Only one of 49 isolates demonstrated antimicrobial resistance.  This is unusual given that gentamicin is widely used to suppress Salmonella by the few remaining turtle multipliers. The antibiotic is used to treat eggs before submission of hatchlings to be screened for Salmonella under a state program that is based on a defective sampling protocol.

To quote the late Dr. Eugene Gangarosa, Dean Emeritus of the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, “Turtles are inappropriate pets.”  The same could be said for a variety of lizards, snakes, iguanas, and other reptiles that acquire infection during rearing, transport and distribution.  These reptiles are usually cared for by teenagers and adults but turtles are essentially purchased for young children creating a danger for this age group