>From: suegreen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>I agree entirely. Actually gerbils are more at risk of catching diseases
>from wild rodents rather than other captive gerbils. Tyzzer's bacteria can
>survive as spores for many months....
The domestic gerbil population seems pretty healthy, thats what im concerned
about, that it remains so! Diseases liek Tyzzers and sendai and many others
are Common in other *domestic* rodent species in the *** USA *** (I cant
speak for other countries) such as rats/mice. These diseases can cross
between species.
Many peopel keep more than one species of small pet. If you start doing
shows/relays etc and a person participates with their gerbils, and they
happen to also have say, pet mice, and if they happened to show those mice
and they became infected with a disease at a mouse/rat show (local areas
have witnessed soemtimes as many as several outbreaks of deadly diseases a
year in conjuctions with shows or relays), then this can get transfered to
the gerbil population. if the gerbil fanciers participating don't recognize
the problem and how to stop it, it can snow ball out of control being spread
very rapidly across the country (exactly what happened in the rat/mouse
fancy).
Also, like I pointed out, Tyzzers can go without symptoms in rats but can be
deadly to mice/gerbils. We do not know what other viruses or bacteria other
species may be a resevoir for already that if introduced to a new species
liek gerbils, could proove fatal. I KNOW quartines are big pain in the
butt, but if they aren't implemented from the beginning, you take the risk
for serious problems later on. granted, maybe gerbils have soem super
immunity to all the diseases plus more that other rodents succumb to, and
you wont have problems. But persoanlly, I wouldnt want to take the chance.
i did it before with other species, and learned my lesson.
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