Narrow minded or am I asking too much?

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

Do you know how much bacterium are in a cats mouth? It's easy research to figure it out and they have a LOT more bacterium to worry about yet are still highly popular. pasturella bacteria is the one that usually causes infections if a person is bitten, other infections caused by Cat bites:
Pasteurella
Actinomyces
Propionibacterium
Bacteroides
Fusobacterium
Clostridium
Wolinella
Peptostreptococcus
Staphylococcus
Streptococcus
Bartonella is on cat paws and fur, therefore it enters the skin with scratches. Hence the name cat scratch fever, not cat bite fever.

It's about knowledge and understanding. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to know as much as they can about something the love to do! If you knew all the risks inherent of BP ownership, do you not agree that it would be an extra tool to educate others to know what they would get into and how much safer they are compared to other pets? I've only characterized the saliva of one BP, that doesn't mean every BP will have E. coli. It's also good to find out if it could be pathogenic to humans or if it's only to help break down their prey. Also it may be able to help determine if there are things that can be done to help decrease the health risks of our beloved pets.

I go to St. Petersburg College, in their biology baccalaureate program. I'm not trying to become a herpetologist though, my goal is to be a physicians assistant in an infectious disease dept.

No, I do not agree with this statement. I think that anyone who wants a ball python is going to get one regardless of how the bacteria in their mouth is classified. The general public either does not have the knowledge base or simply doesn't care about if the bacteria in an animal's mouth is good or bad (as pointed out by the multitude of bacteria in cats' mouths.) HSUS and others would care very much about a study and you can bet such a study would be included in their talking points to ban exotic animals, of course with the designation of harmless conveniently left out. So, such a study would be helpful but to those trying to ban exotics.

There's also nothing wrong with someone refusing to let you swab their animals. It doesn't make them narrow minded or exhibit ignorance of what you are trying to do. I have a degree in Biology, as well as several published papers, and would never let anyone experiment with my personal collection, even just collecting saliva samples.