We all know that animals from pet stores are often pregnant, usually infected with a URI, always covered in mites and/or lice...but did you know what critters they have in their guts?
A study was done on Syrian hamsters from two large hamster mills in the southwest US, each with about 40,000 hamsters on site, bred for the pet trade. The study was specifically looking at "wet tail" disease, a very common intestinal disease that afflicts most pet store hamsters, with high mortality rates. Here are some interesting results:
Quote:
In the first phase of the study, the most important findings were severe Tyzzer’s disease (infection with Clostridium piliforme) and cestodiasis in all of the 9 clinically ill hamsters. Eight (89%) of these 9 hamsters were positive for Campylobacter species by PCR-based testing. Two (22%) of 9 hamsters had Clostridium difficile toxins, a commonly reported cause of enterocolitis. All 15 (100%) of the hamsters had mild to severe infections with the tapeworm, Hymenolepis nana. The tapeworm burden appeared correlative with the level of disease and debilitation. The protozoa Giardia, Entamoeba, Spironucleus muris, and trichomonads were also variably detected in all individuals. The yeast Torulopsis (Candida) heavily colonized the stomach of all hamsters. Rare spiral Helicobacter-like organisms were seen in intestinal wet mounts. Interestingly, the remaining 6 clinically normal hamsters, which were also euthanized and necropsied, had all of the same pathogens except for Clostridium piliforme.
Serologic testing revealed all hamsters to be positive for Sendai [virus] and PVM [pneumonia virus]. Nasal flushes revealed a wide variety of bacterial respiratory pathogens, corresponding with evidence of otitis and sinusitis histologically. Interestingly, all were serologically negative for Tyzzers, despite clear evidence histologically. All were negative for LCMV.
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Barron, Heather Wilson, et al. 2007 "Etiology, Pathology, and Control of Enterocolitis in a Group of Hamsters." Proceedings of the 28th Annual AAV Conference & Expo with AEMV.