Cholera Hitches A Ride On The Backs Of Soft-Shell Turtles
A new study finds that turtles are really good at carrying the bacteria that causes the potentially fatal disease.
You can catch cholera from drinking contaminated water.
You can catch it from raw or undercooked shellfish.
And you can catch it from soft-shell turtles.
That's the finding of a study published earlier this month by scientists at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And it's a particular concern in China and many other countries in East Asia, where turtle meat is often used in stews and soups.
The researchers found that the bacterium, can colonize many of the outer surfaces of a soft-shell turtle, including its shell, legs, neck and calipash — a gelatinous material just underneath the shell and highly prized as a delicacy. The bacteria can also live in turtles' intestines. The study was published in the scientific journal,
