Tiny turtle responsible for baby's death

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has linked the death of a four-week-old baby in Florida earlier this year to a pet turtle.

The CDC says it is concerned that despite a federal law passed in 1975 forbidding the sale of baby turtles smaller than four inches, sales were on the increase.

The CDC says turtles are not safe, especially for children, as they cause illness.

The infant was apparently taken to a Florida hospital on March 1st with fever and septic shock but despite treatment with antibiotics, the baby died.

Tests carried out on bacteria taken from the baby showed it matched a strain found in a turtle given to the infant's family by a friend.

The small creatures were at one time a very popular pet in the U.S. but when it was discovered that they were causing serious illness in children the Food and Drug Administration banned their sale.

In 2006 and 2007 the CDC tracked down 23 other people infected with similar-looking strains of Salmonella and found that most of them had direct or indirect contact with a turtle in the week before they became ill.

The CDC says salmonella can be transmitted to humans by direct or indirect contact with a turtle or its faeces and there are no reliable methods available which guarantee that a turtle is free of Salmonella.

Apparently most turtles are colonized with Salmonella and shed the bacteria intermittently in their faeces and the CDC says they remain a source of human Salmonella infections and prohibiting the sale of small turtles remains the most effective public health action to prevent turtle-associated salmonellosis.