Staying Healthy Around Animals

When you spend time around an animal—whether it's a pet, a farm animal, or a wild animal—there's a chance you can pick up an infection. Some infections can seem mild, but others can be quite serious. So it's a good idea to learn about your risks and how to protect yourself and other people. People who are most in need of protection are children under age 5, and people who are pregnant or who have weak immune systems.

An infection you get from an animal is called a zoonosis (say "zoh-uh-NOH-sus"). You can get a zoonosis from a mammal, a reptile, an amphibian, or a bird. It could be a pet, an animal at a farm or a petting zoo, or a wild animal that passes infection on to you.

Zoonosis may be caused by a bacteria, virus, or fungus, or by a parasite, such as a tapeworm.

It's not just touching an animal that can expose you to an infection. You can get infected when you:

• Are licked, scratched, or bitten by an animal.
• Touch feces or urine from an animal.
• Touch something that an animal has touched, such as bedding, a kennel, a stall, or your own clothing.
• Breathe in dust that carries a disease from an animal, as in a barnyard or a mouse nest.
• Drink water from canals, creeks, or lakes. They might be contaminated with animal waste.
• Eat food from infected animals, such as raw milk, cheese, or meat, or eat produce grown in contaminated water.
• Handle animal meat. Kitchen and food prep areas can be contaminated by raw meat, such as chicken, beef, or game.

Preventing infections

Washing your hands well with soap and water after handling animals can help prevent infections. In general, wash your hands before and after you prepare food and before you eat.

Keep your pet healthy

• Stay up-to-date with your pet's vaccinations.
• De-worm pets, especially puppies and kittens. They're a common source of worms. Talk to your veterinarian about what to use and how often.
• House train or litter-box train your pet. Clean up pet waste often.
• Control and remove fleas and ticks. They can carry disease.
• Take your pet to the vet when they are ill or are acting differently than usual.

Keep things clean

• Wash your hands really well after you handle any animal, including if you touch the fur or meat of dead animals. If you have no soap and water, use a gel hand sanitizer or alcohol-based hand wipe containing 60% to 90% ethyl alcohol or isopropanol.
• Also, wash your hands after:
  • Feeding your pet or handling food and water dishes.
  • Touching any of your pet's toys.
  • Cleaning up after your pet.
• Change and wash your clothes as soon as you come back home from handling animals at a petting zoo or farm.
• Wash or change your pet's bedding regularly.
• Clean up carefully after an animal has vomited or had diarrhea. Wash or replace bedding. Use disinfectant to clean all hard surfaces that have been soiled.
• If there's a chance that a cat or mice walk on kitchen counters, clean counters often with a disinfectant.
• Carefully clean up all rodent droppings you find indoors. Use rubber gloves and a spray disinfectant. Avoid stirring up and breathing in dust.

Avoid spreading animal infections

• Avoid touching an animal before touching or preparing food.
• Don't let an animal lick your mouth or face. Protect any skin wounds you have from animal saliva.
• Limit pets on your bed, especially if they may be sick or were in contact with other sick animals.
• Avoid touching animal feces or urine.
• Avoid touching dirt or sand where feces are likely to have been. This could be in a sandbox or a garden area. Wearing shoes and gloves helps protect you.
• Avoid wild animals. If you need to touch or move an injured or dead animal, wear gloves. Use caution.

Take travel precautions

• Before you travel, learn about common animal-borne infection risks where you're going. Then learn how to protect yourself from them.

Go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site at http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets to learn more about infections from animals.

Helping children stay healthy

Follow these steps to help your child avoid infections from animals.

• Help with good handwashing with soap and water right after a child touches or handles an animal. If you have no soap and water, use a gel hand sanitizer or alcohol-based hand wipe containing 60% to 90% ethyl alcohol or isopropanol.
• At a petting zoo or farm, don't let your child use a pacifier, suck their thumb, or eat with unwashed hands.
• Do not allow young children to kiss or lick turtles, baby chicks or ducklings, or other small pets.
• Teach children to avoid animals they don't know. Remind your child to always ask for permission before going near someone else's animal.

Go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site at http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets to learn more about infections from animals.

Staying healthy if you are pregnant

When you're pregnant, be extra careful around animals, foods from animals, and waste. Follow these steps to protect your baby (fetus) from serious infections from animals or animal products.

• Wash your hands really well after you touch an animal or anything that could have been contaminated by an animal. If you have no soap and water, use a gel hand sanitizer or alcohol-based hand wipe containing 60% to 90% ethyl alcohol or isopropanol.
• Avoid possible sources of toxoplasmosis, which can spread from cats, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV), which can spread from some rodents.
  • Do not clean or breathe dust from cat litter boxes, rodent or bird cages, or places where house mice have been. Ask someone else to do the cleaning. If you have to clean, wear gloves and a face mask.
  • Disinfect food prep and eating areas that a cat, bird, or rodent may have walked on.
• Ask your doctor if there are any other local types of infection you should protect against during pregnancy.

Go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site at http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets to learn more about infections from animals.

Infections you can get from pets

Even pets that seem to be healthy can spread disease. Infections you can get from pets include:

• Cat-scratch disease. This causes swelling and pain in the lymph nodes and loss of appetite. It can also cause skin swelling or redness that is like a bump or pimple. In most cases, it occurs after a scratch, bite, or lick in an open wound from an infected cat or kitten.
• Campylobacter and cryptosporidium. These cause diarrhea, cramping, belly pain, fever, and vomiting. You can be infected when you handle feces from a dog, a cat, or a farm animal. Be especially careful around an animal that has diarrhea.
• Hookworms and roundworms. These can cause belly pain, bleeding, swelling, diarrhea, and raised red lines on the skin that itch. You can get these tiny worms from animal feces.
• Rabies. This can affect the brain and spinal cord. It is nearly always fatal if not treated before symptoms appear. You can be infected when you handle an infected pet or wild animal, especially if you are bitten or scratched.
• Salmonellosis. This causes diarrhea, fever, and belly cramps. You can be infected by handling reptiles, baby chicks and ducklings, and small rodents such as hamsters and guinea pigs.
• Toxoplasmosis. This can cause no symptoms or a mild flu-like illness. Toxoplasmosis can be dangerous for someone who is pregnant and the baby (fetus) and for someone with a weak immune system. You can get it by touching an infected cat, its feces, or something that the cat has touched.

Infections you can get from farm and wild animals

E. coli is a common infection that can cause severe diarrhea that may be bloody. It can also cause severe belly cramps. Some people may have vomiting or a fever. You can be infected by cattle on a farm or by sheep or goats in a petting zoo.

Other serious but less common infections include:

• Brucellosis infection. This can cause serious long-term illness. It starts with flu-like symptoms. You can be infected by unpasteurized milk or cheese, or undercooked meat from an infected animal. Herd animals on the farm and in the wild can be infected. Hunters and animal handlers can also breathe in the bacteria when handling infected meat, hides, or wool.
• Hantavirus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV). These can cause serious illness. LCMV is also dangerous for someone who is pregnant and the baby (fetus). You can be infected by breathing in dust from rodent bedding or mouse urine and droppings, or from a mouse bite.
• Rabies. This is nearly always fatal if not treated before symptoms appear.You can be infected if you get scratched or bitten by an infected wild animal. Bats are the most common carriers of rabies in the U.S., but dogs are the most common carriers in the world.
• Q fever. This can cause flu-like illness, diarrhea, vomiting, and chest or belly pain. It is a serious illness for people with heart valve problems. You can be infected by manure or dust from areas where cattle, sheep, or goats live, or from unpasteurized milk.