Visitor behaviour and public health implications associated with exotic pet markets: an observational study

Warwick, Clifford; Arena, Phillip C; Steedman, Catrina

The situating of pet markets in venues often used for general public purposes, such as school halls and leisure centres, constitutes a potential public health hazard that realistically may endure for days, weeks or months following the conclusion of the pet market. Certain bacteria, such as Salmonella, are well understood to viably persist on surfaces in the general environment. At venues hosting pet markets it is reasonable to presume that all public contact surfaces such as door handles, floors, doorways, walls, light switches and many others may remain microbially contaminated and thus potential sources of infection. Given that these same venues may be sequentially used for a wide variety of other public purposes, including schooling of children, there exists an ongoing potential residual risk of infection to entirely unsuspecting and unprepared users. Furthermore, these venues are often located adjacent to shopping centres which market visitors may attend, carrying with them a host of pathogens and the potential to spread disease far beyond the source of original contamination. As such, even non-attendance at a pet market does not guarantee that public health is not compromised.