Cholera Hitches A Ride On The Backs Of Soft-Shell Turtles.
Cholera Hitches A Ride On The Backs Of Soft-Shell Turtles.
NPR, June 26, 2017.
You can catch cholera from drinking contaminated water.
That’s the finding of a study published 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 bacteria can also live in turtles’ intestines.
The study was published in the scientific journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Although China has relatively few cholera cases compared to other countries, several small outbreaks of cholera are linked to soft-shell turtles every year, often at rural banquets — a troubling sign, considering that turtle consumption in the country has grown to somewhere between 220 million and 330 million pounds per year.
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