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Letter
Hedgehog Zoonoses
To the Editor: The article on hedgehog zoonoses (1)
reviews diseases transmitted from African and European hedgehogs to humans
but does not compare their infectious potential to that of other animals
and people. For example, cats and Yorkshire terriers are well-known vectors
of ringworm (2), but this has not been highlighted in
Emerging Infectious Diseases. Also, the reports of herpesvirus (including
human herpes simplex) hepatitis described in the article occurred as fatal
hepatitis in hedgehogs, whereas their owners apparently escaped unscathed.
These cases appear to be "reverse zoonoses" that are dangerous
for the pet but not its human contacts. Perhaps the misleading table in
the article should be revised so that busy medical doctors don't jump
to conclusions, and hedgehogs don't end up on the euthanasia list at shelters.
Melissa Behr*
*New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York, USA
Suggested citation
for this article:
Behr M. Hedgehog zoonoses
[letter]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2005 Jul [date
cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no07/05-0045_05-0410.htm
References
- Riley PY, Chomel BB. Hedgehog
zoonoses. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11:1–5.
- Scott DW, Miller WH, Griffin CE. Muller and Kirk's small animal dermatology.
6th ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company; 2000.
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In response: We thank Dr. Behr for her comment
(1). The intent of our manuscript was to report, from
a literature review, information on zoonotic infections related to hedgehogs.
Of course, we are mainly concerned with infections or infestations that
hedgehogs can transmit to humans, but we also noted that the inverse can
be true, and humans can be a source of infection in pet hedgehogs. This
manuscript was intended to inform not only physicians but also veterinarians
and wildlife rescuers who may not be familiar with zoonotic diseases borne
by or transmitted to hedgehogs. We also would like to take advantage of
this letter to clarify a few points from our manuscript. First of all,
pet hedgehogs are mainly African pygmy hedgehogs, and no reliable data
are available regarding the number of European hedgehogs that are kept
as pets either in Europe, the United States, or other parts of the world.
In many European countries, native hedgehogs are protected by law and
cannot be kept as pets (F. Moutou, pers. comm.). Furthermore, our comment
on plague and "hedgehogs" in Madagascar was meant to be informative,
as these animals are found only on that island. They are not true hedgehogs
(belonging to the family Tenrecidae and not Erinaceidae)
and are unlikely to be kept as pets (2; F. Moutou, pers.
comm.). In our literature review from PubMed, we found no report of human
leptospirosis infection from hedgehogs. However, the European hedgehog
is considered the main host of Leptospira bratislava in the Netherlands
and Denmark and the main host of L. canicola in Israel (2).
Finally, if hedgehogs can be infected by lungworms of the genus Capillaria,
no report of a human infection transmitted by hedgehogs has been published
to our knowledge.
Bruno B. Chomel*
and Patricia Y. Riley*
*University of California–Davis, Davis, California, USA
Suggested citation
for this article:
Chomel BB, Riley PY.
Hedgehog zoonoses [in response]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet].
2005 Jul [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no07/05-0045_05-0410.htm
References
- Behr M. Hedgehog zoonoses. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11:1146.
- Smith JMB. Diseases of hedgehogs. Vet Bull. 1968;38:425–30.
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