To this author it seems like a truism to state that pet snakes are a bad idea for a great number of reasons. A new reason has just popped up — salmonella in frozen mice. It turns out that, for over a year, frozen mice sold by MiceDirect (one of the US and UK’s leading frozen mice providers) have been contaminated with salmonella. A product recall is now underway. The danger to humans is that many snake lovers store their mice in the freezer (next to the family’s pork chops), microwave the mice (because Peter the Python wants his mice “just right”) or wash their frozen mice in the kitchen sink (because, after all, what snake wants to eat a dirty mouse). Since salmonella easily contaminates objects with which it comes into contact, the cross-contamination potential is significant. Yet another reason, not to keep a pet snake.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/business/global/30mice.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=snake&st=cse

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