Domestic Disease: Exotic pets bring pathogens home
By Ben Harder
The current outbreak of monkeypox in the Midwest is the first report of this smallpox-related virus in people in the Western Hemisphere, according to infectious-disease investigators. It’s also the first time the disease has been associated with prairie dogs. However, the animals, caught wild in Texas and South Dakota and sold as pets, have been known to transmit other serious infections, the scientists say.
Since early May, monkeypox has sickened several dozen people, mainly in Wisconsin and Indiana, says Stephen Ostroff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.