Health: Salmonella risk from pet reptiles

Pet snakes and lizards pose a significant salmonella risk to babies, doctors warned yesterday. A study in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood reported on two children, one 11 days old and the other eight weeks, who both became ill from salmonella infection.

In the youngest child, the bug was acquired from the family's pet green iguana, which appeared perfectly healthy. The child's symptoms lasted for six months. The father of the second child bred snakes, 15 of which shared the family home. The same strain of salmonella was isolated from four of the snake species.