Frozen Rodents & Salomenella

[Emmastaff]

I stumbled upon this accidently when I was searching for a source of rodents in Michigan:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18833597

[Freakie_frog]

I stumbled upon this accidently when I was searching for a source of rodents in Michigan:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18833597

The thing I read was "Human transmission likely occurred through direct contact with snakes and contaminated environmental surfaces".

WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!!!! ( not you particularly just people in general)

[Emmastaff]

LOL, I know you didn't mean me in particular. I agree though. I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer right by my cages so that I can disinfect before touching anything else like door knobs. Then I go and wash my hands.

[jason79]

I also keep hand sanitizer by my snake cages and in my rat room.

[Oxylepy]

I only use my hand sanitizer when dealing with my rats. I wash with soap and water after handling my snakes.

I HATE this whole hand sanitizer fad. You know how it claims it kills 99.99% of bacteria? Why does that .01% survive? Because they're resistant to the alcohol, and quite possibly they have fairly large cell walls and glycocalyx, meaning they are generally hardy and most likely Gram negative, and they are more likely to be dangerous to your health. What happens when 99.99% of the area taken up by the now dead bacteria is freed up? That .01% now has a huge zone to reproduce in, and they will, quickly. They double, then those offspring double, and at an average lifespan of 20 minutes, it happens fast. What does that mean for you? You are now a bacteria culture for possibly harmful bacteria.

The rise of these sorts of products (including anti-bacterial products and overuse/misuse of antibiotics) is why the bacteria that were once isolated to hospitals are now in the general public, and more and more people are becoming infected with the so called "super bugs." Your body can handle small levels of harmful bacteria, but when you force them to reproduce like that they will, and then your body cannot fend them off effectively, leading to infection.

I'm just loving this flu season how everyone is now obsessed with using these products. Its helping the economy and Purel's stock, but it's harmful to the populace.

Or so I've learned as a bio major. And not just from a teacher telling me, but from learning more about the cells themselves and how they act.