Wild Animal Training :: Small Mammals

The following precautions are necessary to protect yourself and your family from disease while working with wild mammals:    

• Gloves should be worn and hands washed after glove removal (and frequently throughout the day).  Waterless hand cleaner can be used until soap and clean water are available. 
• Many of the zoonoses are spread by fecal-oral contamination (their excreta into your mouth).  To prevent this, don’t eat, drink, apply lip balm or make-up, or smoke while trapping or handling animals, their bedding, cages, or pens.  Always wash your hands prior to eating, drinking, or smoking after handling these things. 
• Avoid exposure to, or handling of, sick, dying, or dead animals.  
• Designated protective clothing and shoes should be worn, and these should be bagged until they can be cleaned or laundered (separately) from other clothes. 
• Zoonotic organisms are potentially hazardous to your family members.  A normal, healthy adult may have only mild symptoms when infected with a zoonotic disease, but the same organisms can be fatal to infants, the elderly, and those with a weakened or suppressed immune system, such as the elderly, people without spleens, people taking cortisone and other medications, people on chemotherapy or radiation, those with cancer, diabetes, AIDS or renal failure, etc.

·        If you suspect your immune system may be abnormal, seek medical attention for diagnosis, treatment and determination as to whether or not animal exposure is safe for you. Do this immediately!

Baylisascaris procyonis (an intestinal parasitic worm) can be harbored in raccoon intestines. 

EDWARDSIELLA TARDA… is an opportunistic pathogen (Gram negative rod) occasionally causing acute gastroenteritis; associated with meningitis, septicemia, and wound infections.  The reservoir is mammals, reptiles (intestinal tract of snakes), and water (contamination from reptiles and fish).  The host range is mammals, aquatic mammals, reptiles, fish and occasionally humans.  The transmission is fecal-oral and can be avoided by the use of careful handwashing.  

SALMONELLOSIS is discussed in Wild Animal Training

RABIES has already been discussed in the prior module “Wild Animals.”  Since Rabies is a potential threat to anyone trapping large or small mammals, a rabies pre-exposure immunization series should be completed at least 3-4 weeks prior to wild mammal exposure.  The series consists of 3 painless (seriously) injections over a 3-4 week period.  For Clemson employees (including GRAs and GTAs) the series is a departmental expense; for students it will be a personal expense.  Not many facilities administer the pre-exposure series, so be sure to discuss this with your advisor or supervisor AND Clemson’s occupational health nurse at least 2 months prior to anticipated exposure in order to complete the series and obtain adequate protection prior to exposure.   

LEPTOSPIROSIS… a group of bacterial zoonotic diseases fouond in cattle, swine, dogs, equine fetuses, wildlife, water, field voles, raccoons, and human beings.  Transmission is most commonly by water contaminated by urine from infected reservoir hosts or wildlife and recreational exposure (i.e., swimming or splashing in contaminated water).  Leptospirosis  also occurs in abattoir and sewer workers, veterinarians, farmers, field workers, and laboratory workers.  Ingestion, accidental parenteral inoculation, and direct or indirect contact of skin or mucous membranes with cultures or infected tissues or body fluids (especially urine and blood) during handling, care, or necropsy are the primary laboratory hazards.  The incubation period is usually 7-13 days, and the onset is usually abrupt, with influenza-like symptoms.  These include fever, headache, chills, severe myalgia ( especially calves and thighs). Gastrointestinal symptoms can also occur, as can conjunctival suffusion (with resulting eye redness). The illness lasts from a few days to several weeks and may progress to renal, liver, respiratory failure, cardiac failure or central nervous involvement.  It sometimes results in death.  Prompt recognition and specific treatment with antibiotics is essential.  Gloves are recommended for the handling and necropsy of infected animals and when there is the likelihood of direct skin contact with infectious materials.

BAYLISASCARIS PROCYONIS (BP) is a common roundworm found in the small intestine of raccoons, known to cause severe or fatal encephalitis (neural larva migrans) in a variety of birds and mammals, including humans.  BP also can cause human ocular and visceral larva migrans.  Humans can become infected with BP by inadvertently ingesting BP eggs from raccoon feces (fecal-oral contamination).  A study done several years ago by a Clemson graduate student failed to find BP in South Carolina raccoons, but this status could have changed.  This is another reason to wash any possibly exposed skin after glove removal when trapping raccoons.  BP eggs are extremely durable, so elaborate procedures are required to destroy them so other species are not infected through contaminated cages.   More information on BP and cage cleaning can be obtained from the occupational health nurse.  Also:  http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5051a1.htm

HANTAVIRUS PULMONARY SYNDROME was mentioned in the module “WILD ANIMALS.”  Hantavirus can be found in the saliva, blood, tissue, and nesting material of some mice and rats.  Disturbing nests of infected rodents can aerosolize the virus and possibly cause the severe respiratory condition known as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome.  Faculty, students and staff with occupational exposure to small animals (which includes wild rodents) must take hantavirus training. 

This page was updated on August 10, 2004, and is maintained by Sue Pedrick in the Joseph F. Sullivan Center of the College of Health, Education,and Human Development

© Medical Surveillance Program * Clemson University * Clemson, South Carolina, 29634