“The recent Salmonella outbreak due to contaminated peanuts is repeated every year to the tune of 1.4 million cases of this illness nationwide,” warns Leonard Douglen, Executive Director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association.
“More than 500 people die every year from Salmonella and the most common transmitters of this disease are rats, mice, and even family pets, particularly if they are rodents like hamsters or guinea pigs.”
For pest management professionals, “keeping food production and preparation facilities pest-free is among the greatest challenge we face,” said Douglen, “because a wide variety of insect, rodent, and bird pests can create the conditions under which Salmonella can occur and be spread.”
In the case of the Peanut Corporation of America, inspectors found dead rodents, rodent excrement, and bird feathers in the plant. “I’d be willing to bet that management was warned, not once, but repeatedly that it had a pest problem, but may have been unresponsive to the measures required to eliminate the problem,” said Douglen.
Texas, like all other states, had the authority to stop a company’s operation and order a recall when it found conditions posing a threat to human health or life. “No one hates insect and rodent pests more than pest management professionals,” says Douglen. “No one is more dedicated to their elimination. That is why, across the nation, the high level of safety found in food production and services begins with proper and intensive pest elimination.”
In addition to rodents, Douglen noted that cockroaches and other pest insects spread Salmonella as well. “Since the beginning of civilization when people began to live in close proximity to one another and rely on one another for the provision of various foods, there has been an awareness of the necessity to reduce the predation and contamination for which pests are responsible.”
Pets, said Douglen, “are great companions, but they too represent potential health threats. This is particularly true of people who have rodent pests such as hamsters, mice, guinea pigs or even rats. People who have snakes as pets are subject to Salmonella as well. Other pets such as chicks, ducklings, and kittens are often transmitters of the disease. Direct contact such as kissing the pet or just handling it can spread Salmonella. This explains why the most common victims are often young children or teens.”
Animal feces are the primary factor in the transmission of Salmonella. “Rodents such as mice and rats have very poor urinary and bowel control, commonly urinating and leaving behind visible evidence of their presence.”
Other than maintaining high levels of pest control, the best way to avoid Salmonella is to insist that anyone handling pets or providing food production and provision services wash their hands after contact with pets and before the preparation of any foods. “Washing one’s hands regularly may well be one of the best defenses against disease for any reason,” said Douglen.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the work of the nation’s pest control professionals is the first line of defense against the wider spread of Salmonella and the other food-borne diseases that are spread by insect and rodent pests,” said Douglen.
“Mother Nature does not take sides. The return and outbreak of massive bed bug infestations in recent years tells us that whenever and wherever a pest species can establish itself, it will. Because of their ability to reproduce in prodigious numbers and do so swiftly, it is a warning to everyone that just as in the recent cases of Salmonella pest control is the one function that no society can afford to ignore.”
